One of the largest question marks for Auburn’s 2015 season is still stamped on the Tigers’ offense.
Key players Sammie Coates, Cameron Artis-Payne and, of course, play-maker Nick Marshall have left the scene, so the pressure is high to fill their shoes.
According to coach Gus Malzahn, Jeremy Johnson’s got the quarterback position in the bag.
“I’m very excited about Jeremy,” Malzahn said. “Even in high school … he ran a similar offense. The fact is this will be his third year in our system, even though he’s the backup, he got a lot of reps with the ones in practice. I feel very good about where he’s at. His coaches and his teammates have a lot of confidence in him, and he’s earned that.”
As far as taking the back seat goes, Malzahn said Johnson’s patience showed.
“I really appreciate the way that he responded to not being the starter the last couple of years when he could of started for the majority of the teams,” Malzahn said. “The way he’s responded is something special.”
Currently at 6-foot-5, 235 pounds, Johnson said he’s ready to take the starting role.
“I’ve been in the system for three years now,” Johnson said. “Even when I wasn’t playing, I was competing as a starter. My time is here now and I’m blessed. I’ve been preparing for a start since I got to Auburn, so I felt like a starter, but I wasn’t playing, and now that my time is here I can release everything that I had inside me while I was sitting out those two years.”
Malzahn compared the plan for this season’s offense to 2013, emphasizing a small change, but a stronger implementation of throwing the football.
“We’re going to have the same offensive philosophy and the foundation every year,” Malzahn said. “But we are going to build the offense around the quarterback’s strengths. Jeremy has the ability. He can flat out throw it. He can make the every throw that you ask him to do, but he’s a better runner than people think, so he will allow us to call all of our offense.”
Johnson said he is confident in his offense’s ability to move the football.
“I have a lot of confidence,” Johnson said. “We probably have the best wide receiver in the country right now (Duke Williams), but not only him, we’ve got Ricardo Lewis and Melvin Ray. That’s three seniors, and then we’ve got Marcus Davis, a junior that’s been playing since he was a freshman. I’ve just got a lot of weapons around me, and like I said, those guys are going to make a lot of plays for me this year, so I feel very, very good about it.”
As far as the running back position goes, the favorite has been Roc Thomas, but Malzahn hasn’t officially named a starter.
“Of course, Roc has done an outstanding job,” Malzahn said. “The other two guys that we have, Peyton Barber and our junior college transfer that came in (Jovon Robinson), we think all three will have a chance to be very successful in our offense … We always like to have that one workhouse guy, but we have a habit of using multiple tailbacks. Hopefully, we’ll figure out who that workhouse guy is earlier rather than later.”
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
