By all accounts, the three-quarterback experiment against Clemson failed.
It seemed to do more harm than good, and Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn recognized that and has adjusted his approach going forward, starting with the game against Arkansas State.
"Our plan going in was to play all three quarterbacks," Malzahn said. "We thought it would be successful and obviously it wasn’t. Moving forward, Sean White will be our starting quarterback and John Franklin will get the second team reps this week in practice."
The Tigers will roll with White and Franklin from here on out, which leaves senior Jeremy Johnson the odd man out. Johnson's stats weren't glaringly negative, as he went 4-for-6 for 38 yards and an interception. But in his designed packages in the red zone, Johnson couldn't generate the needed push in close-yardage situations like he had later in the 2015 season.
With Johnson out of the picture, Franklin will get more opportunities than he did in the opener, which was largely limited to designed options and handoffs. He'll get the second-team reps behind White and won't be limited to solely taking snaps out of the Wildcat.
“I thought we moved the ball pretty well when [Franklin] was in there," Malzahn said. "That was his first time to be out there. We thought he handled himself pretty well. From an offensive standpoint, there were some new faces out there. From a coach’s standpoint, you learn about your guys. We were curious about some of the guys, and we felt like he responded pretty well.”
Malzahn acknowledged the tempo, which had suffered in 2015, again wasn't where it needed to be, largely because of the constant switching and substituting at the quarterback spot. With only two guys to work with now, Malzahn's plan is to up the pace by a considerable margin.
They'll have a decent chance to work out the wrinkles in the revised approach against Arkansas State, a team that allowed 556 yards to Toledo in week 1.
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