A-Day, an event when the dense fog surrounding the makeup of the Auburn Tigers for the fall was supposed to become even marginally clearer, provided no such resolution.
The quarterback competition — a three-way race between Jeremy Johnson, Sean White and newcomer John Franklin III — is still at a virtual deadlock. White performed the best of the group at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday with a combined 125 yards between the two teams, but coach Gus Malzahn put little to no stock in the numbers of a glorified practice, saying the staff puts more emphasis on “the body of work and evaluations” in the dozen practices the Tigers have already undergone.
It’s a good thing that’s the case, because the offense didn’t look particularly impressive in the closest thing to game action the Tigers have seen since dismantling Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl in December. A combined 1-for-22 on 3rd down is concerning, but Malzahn cautioned everyone to pump the brakes on declaring 2016 a lost cause after a spring game.
“The challenge is, when you rotate three quarterbacks with different groups and you got different receivers and all that, that is a challenge,” Malzahn said. “You’ve got to give our defense some credit on that. As far as concern, I’m not concerned at all. I thought the defense did an outstanding job and they made them earn it.”
Franklin received the first snaps of A-Day and, like Johnson and White, rotated between the ones and twos. He finished with 61 passing yards and a score on the day, a touchdown that receiver Marcus Davis deserved most of the credit for. Franklin lofted up a 40-yard prayer that went 37, but Davis undercut his route and snaked in between the pair of defenders covering him to reel in Franklin’s first touchdown as a Tiger, not counting the ones he scored as Florida State’s version of Nick Marshall on the scout team prior to the 2014 BCS National Championship.
But for Franklin, who has had all of four months with his new team, the experience was one he was looking forward to.
“Coming in, I was getting used to the pace of the offense, not so much the playbook but as far as the tempo, how fast coach wants us to go,” Franklin said. “I can see a big difference from when I first came in to now. The game’s starting to slow down for me. [I’ve got] a long way to go before I snap the ball, but things are starting to come quicker to me so I’m more comfortable now, so that’s the biggest thing.”
Johnson, the heir apparent to Marshall in 2015 who suffered from a crushed confidence and unmet expectations, threw a touchdown of his own as he works to regain the starting spot that slipped away last season. He finished 6-for-13 with 35 yards and a touchdown — a nicely placed ball to running back Roc Thomas, who flashed his skill as a receiver out of the backfield late in the third quarter.
Despite not dazzling everyone in attendance like he was expected to do the year before, Johnson remained contrite and humbled by his experiences in that tumultuous season.
“Like I tell everybody all the time, life is about obstacles,” Johnson said. “You’re gonna face them, you’re gonna go through it. I went through it, that’s fine, that’s okay. I tell people: I haven’t been starter for three years, that was my first year starting. It happened. At the end of the year, I got better, got my confidence back, and now I feel even better where I’m at as a person, as a player. Your character — how you handle things takes you a long way, so I feel like I’m in a good spot.”
Auburn has roughly six months until Clemson and potential Heisman front-runner DeShaun Watson visit Jordan-Hare Stadium on Sept. 3. By then, maybe some of those answers will have presented themselves.
For their sake, the Tigers better hope they do.
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