AUBURN | In the end, it was an easy decision for Gus Malzahn. And an important one if he’s going to come close to picking a starting quarterback, or at least narrowing the race, this spring.
For the first time since 2016, Malzahn allowed all of his quarterbacks to go live during a spring scrimmage.
“You gather so much more information by letting the guys play because when you quick-whistle things and they take off, you question yourself, ‘Would he have been tackled, would he have not been tackled?’ Then you get them with their decision making and you also get to see them protecting the football and everything that goes with it. There’s a lot of teachable moments.
“We do have quite a bit of inexperience at the quarterback position, so it just felt like it was very important that we did that.”
***** FIND OUT HOW THE QUARTERBACKS PERFORMED AND THE OTHER STANDOUTS IN OUR SCRIMMAGE INSIDER *****
The scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium lasted approximately 91 plays with the four quarterbacks — Bo Nix, Joey Gatewood, Malik Willis and Cord Sandberg — getting close to equal reps among the first, second and third teams.
Malzahn kept it basic on both sides of the ball so he could evaluate the players on how they performed going full speed and him and his staff would have plenty of those teachable moments going into next week.
“There were some mistakes made, we knew that, that’s always part of it,” Malzahn said. “We rotated really three groups and any time you do that, but you get in the pocket, and the biggest thing is when you get in the pocket you feel the rush and they’re live, it completely changes everything from a quarterback standpoint. He gets to extend plays, you see his decision making on extending plays and I just think everything all of the above.
“Our quarterbacks had some read zones that they kept and how they reacted. We tried to throw the ball vertically down the field a few times, too. Where was the ball placement, how is the protection with everything that goes with it.”
Now at the midpoint of spring drills, Malzahn is not ruling out at least narrowing down the quarterback race. Of course, he’s not ruling it in either.
“I'm not going to say it right now, but that's the eighth practice right there, so we're a little more than halfway,” Malzahn said. “So, we've got two scrimmages left. And the scrimmages, you learn so much more than you do just practicing. So, not ready to say right now, but I will say this -- there will be some really good film to go, and there will be some teaching moments.
“You've got to keep in mind that we've got quite a bit of inexperience. So, you know -- Malik's the one that has experience, but the other three don't. So, there's some really good teaching moments. We'll see who can improve.”
Auburn will return to the practice fields Monday afternoon and hold the second full scrimmage of the spring next Saturday. The A-Day game will be April 13 at 3 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
***** FIND OUT HOW THE QUARTERBACKS PERFORMED AND THE OTHER STANDOUTS IN OUR SCRIMMAGE INSIDER *****
