AUBURN | Joey Gatewood may not like it, but Auburn’s redshirt freshman quarterback is going to have to get used to it.

Those Cam Newton comparisons are going to keep coming in hot, especially after Gatewood’s standout performance in Saturday’s A-Day game.

“A running back. I'll tell you that. A running back, or Cam Newton,” said Matthew Hill of what Gatewood looks when the quarterbacks are live. “I'm not going to sit here and lie to you — he doesn't like being compared to Cam Newton, but that's just the only person you can compare him to.”

The comparisons don’t stop there.

“Baby Cam Newton. I’m telling you. He’s another Cam Newton back there,” wide receiver Seth Williams said. “Once he gets live, he turns into a whole ’nother person. Like, you couldn’t see it for real with this spring, with the scrimmage, the QB’s not live—but once they’re live, I don’t think, they can’t get back there. If they get back there he’s going to run it and he’s going to still have his eyes downfield to throw it. But he can run it. He can run good.”

The quarterbacks weren’t live — meaning they couldn’t be tackled — during the A-Day game, which gave Gatewood a chance to show off his new and improved passing ability. And he showed plenty.

Working exclusively with Orange team in the first half, Gatewood completed 7 of 10 passes for 123 yards and touchdowns passes of 11 and 29 yards to Williams. It works out to a 239.3 quarterback rating on just three possessions.

“He’s a different quarterback than he was at this time last year,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “He does have more confidence. He has really been focused and really desperate to win the job. So he’s had a very good spring. And like I said, today he made some explosive plays. And when you let him go live, it’s a little bit different too.”

Malzahn said he’ll put the quarterbacks in some kind of order later this week. Gatewood took the first reps with the ones during A-Day followed by Bo Nix. Malik Willis and Cord Sandberg worked with the second team.

On Saturday, and from reports throughout the spring, Gatewood made a strong case to be No. 1 quarterback coming out of spring or at least in the top two.

“Joey’s going to be real special, man,” running back Kam Martin said. “He wants to get better, man. He wants you to strain him and he wants to be coached. I feel like Joey’s going to be real special.”

Auburn opens the 2019 season Aug. 31 against Oregon at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.