Questions were swirling on the Plains at halftime of Auburn’s season opener against Oregon.
Auburn trailed 14-6, was without a touchdown and its true freshman quarterback Bo Nix had thrown two interceptions. Since then, the freshman has thrown seven consecutive touchdown passes in five games without turning the ball over, leading the Tigers to a 5-0 record.
This past weekend, against Mississippi State, Nix had the best game of his young career. The Alabama native led No. 7 Auburn to a 56-23 victory, throwing for 335 yards on 16-of-21 passing and two touchdowns.
And, once again, the freshman was without a blemish in the turnover department.
“That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of,” Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said. “We were at A&M a few weeks ago and we had pretty good protection, but they had pretty good coverage and he took a sack. Another quarterback probably would have thrown it up, thrown it up for grabs. He didn’t do that. I think that shows a lot of maturity for a young guy that he’s conscious of protecting the football, No. 1.”
The one complaint from Nix has been ball security off the snap, not through the air, and holding on to the ball when he scrambles. To this point in the season, Auburn’s signal caller hasn’t lost a fumble, but he has had trouble holding on to the ball at times when in the shotgun formation, and almost lost possession Saturday against Mississippi State after a 30-yard run but the ball rolled out of bounds.
“What I told him -- really it's a little bit of reality that in our league, when he breaks, somebody is going to catch him. It's not like high school. They're going to come and they're going to go for the ball,” Malzahn said. “I really expect next time when he does break, he'll be more aware and have it a little bit tighter and have that off-hand on the ball as he comes. It was a teaching moment. We were very fortunate the ball went out of bounds. It was a good teaching moment, and I expect him to correct that the next time he's in a similar situation.”
Heading into this weekend, Nix is 26th in the country in Total Quarterback Rating at 74.4 with 980 yards and seven touchdowns. On the season, he is 72-of-125 on pass attempts for a completion percentage of 57.6. Malzahn has harped on trusting the process with a freshman quarterback in the SEC, and focusing on improvement one week at a time.
In five games, Nix has improved in completion percentage every week but one (Texas A&M). Nix completed over 76 percent of his passes at home versus Mississippi State, which is his new season best. The second highest was against Kent State when he completed 75 percent of his passes for 161 yards and one touchdown.
“Every week, you can sense it,” Malzahn said. “You can sense it in practice; it's not just the game. In practice you can sense the awareness. We're trying to do a lot of carry-over. We're trying to build upon things. Each week he feels more comfortable, and you can add a few things to that. We're to a point now where he really feels more comfortable, and each week, each snap he'll feel more comfortable.”
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