AUBURN | It’s not ideal circumstances but Bo Nix is making the best of trying to master Chad Morris’ offense while bunkered down at his home in Phenix City, Ala.
With Auburn’s players missing out on spring practice and school being closed through at least June due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Nix is trying to get the most out of the four hours a week coaches are able to speak about football with players remotely and putting those ideas into action with his father, Pat, a high school coach and former college coordinator, and younger brother, Caleb, a quarterback prospect in the 2022 class.
“We’re only on a couple of installs because the situation kind of slowed us down, but I have have gone ahead a little bit on my own time and soaked up as much as I could,” Nix said. “I think I’m in a good spot as far as learning a new offense. Obviously it’s hard without running and repping plays at practice and having a spring under your belt, but I feel like as we continue I’ll be able to learn the whole offense by the time the season starts.”
Not surprisingly, Nix spent a lot of extra time with Morris going over his offense after he was hired in December. Morris was able to spend time with Nix during bowl practice, and Nix had a couple of months to pick Morris’ brain in his office for the next couple of months before the University was closed on March 12.
Looking back, Nix calls that time extremely valuable.
“I'm glad I did that, and I'm glad I went in there from the start,” he said. “Because we really got a good jump on things. And we were really looking forward to going into spring because we were already kind of ahead just as a quarterback room in general. And then we were going to bring our guys along as we went.
“So obviously, not having spring, not having an extra set of practice, especially after a year of playing, I mean that kind of hurts. And you wish you could have it back. But at the end the day, everybody did it and nobody got their spring practice. So whenever we get back, it will light the fire that much bigger, and then you'll get to go out there and play and have fun again.”
Nix is pretty confident in his ability to pick up the offense, but getting the timing down with his wide receivers, tight ends and running backs, and getting used to how Morris runs his practices and handles quarterbacks in scrimmages and games is something that will just have to be put on hold for now.
“Just repetition and reps,” Nix said. “Obviously being coached on the field is really important. And coach Morris on the field, we would have had great learning moments and great teaching moments where he can tell me exactly what he wanted on a certain play and a specific look. And maybe as we got going through the spring, different checks that the quarterback should be making and stuff like that.
“So you can't replace experience. You can't replace repetition. So just without that, we'll be just a few steps behind. But I mean, I'm not worried about it because the NCAA, the coaches, they'll take care of us as we move forward because everyone's in the position. And whenever we start, we'll just start from day one, and we'll move on from there.”
Nix, the SEC Freshman of the Year, started all 13 games last season completing 217 of 377 passes for 2,542 yards and 16 touchdowns — all school records for a freshman. He also rushed for 313 yards and seven touchdowns.
Auburn is scheduled to open the season Sept. 5 against Alcorn State at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
