Montgomery's new-look offense shows improvement, no separation in key battles

As the new-look Auburn Tigers begin their second week of fall camp, offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery shared his thoughts on where his unit stands with under four weeks remaining until the opening game.

Montgomery’s offense features battles to start at many key positions including quarterback, offensive line and wide receiver. 

“For us, we’ve got a lot of battles going on for positions,” Montgomery said. “Whether you’re talking about receivers, whether you’re talking about guys up front, we’ve got a quarterback battle going on.”

The progress of the three-way quarterback battle featuring Payton Thorne, Robby Ashford and Holden Geriner was at the forefront of Montgomery’s questions as the staff will reduce first-team reps at signal caller after around five days of camp.

“I just want to see somebody take control and really take a step forward and separate themselves. That’s what you’re looking for in your quarterback position: a guy that’s going to lead, a guy that’s going to make plays,” Montgomery said. “He doesn’t have to be Superman but he does have to be consistent in his play, in his decision making and taking care of the football and then moving us down the field and staying ahead of the chains.”

Montgomery had positive things to say about each of the three frontrunners to take the starting quarterback job. When asked about Thorne, Montgomery praised his professionalism and leadership. The Michigan State transfer started for two seasons with the Spartans before transferring to Auburn.

“You want to talk about a guy who is professional in the way he goes about his work…He’s always watching tape, he’s always studying,” Montgomery said. “He wants to be on top of every detail that is involved in our offense and he’s seeing things right now at a really good rate…But I think he does a great job with his leadership. He’s disciplined and he’s professional about what he does.”

Ashford has shown improvement in his passing game, according to Montgomery. The incumbent starter completed passed for 1,613 yards and completed 49.2% of his passes in 2022.

“I honestly think Robby has thrown the ball better this fall camp,” Montgomery said. “I’ve seen him progress in that manner. You see a good sum of deep balls, he’s been a little more consistent on his underneath stuff and that’s an area that he wants to improve. And he’s got a big arm but it’s the consistency of the fundamentals that go into that part of it and he’s worked really hard on that.”

Geriner’s natural passing ability has impressed Montgomery. Montgomery, however, has also noticed a running ability that many did not see with Geriner before. Geriner is seen by his offensive coordinator as a mentally strong quarterback.

“I think (Geriner) is a natural thrower. The ball just zips out of his hand, stands tall in the pocket. I think he’s doing a really good job of working through his progression, putting his eyes in the right spot and not hanging in too long,” Montgomery said. “I think he has the ability to do some things with his feet, be able to get outside when things break down. But the best part of his game is mentally being on point with what he’s got.”

Though the quarterback position has headlined the position battles, an offense rich with newcomers features starting battles at many different places. The new-look offensive line, coached by Jake Thornton, is one of those positions. The group has made strides since spring ball, according to Montgomery.

“They’ve come a long way, and still are,” Montgomery said. “We’ve still got some new faces up there, guys that are working in. But playing offensive line is all about gelling as a unit. And we’ve got some great battles that are going on up front right now. And guys are feeling that pressure of ‘Hey, I’ve got to be on top of my game each and every day.’ But for us to do what we want to do offensively, those five guys have got to lead the way for us.”

The receiver room is also filled with newcomers, some of whom have stood out to Montgomery early in fall camp: Caleb Burton, Shane Hooks and Jyaire Shorter.

“I think all three of those guys are doing some really good things. You started with Caleb. I think he does have the ability to play inside out. He’s a really fluid natural route-runner,” Montgomery said. “When you start talking about Jyaire and Shane, I think both of those guys that day one, their head was spinning a little bit. And then I think they’ve settled in each and every day and you look at some of the plays they’ve made throughout the last couple of days, they’ve really started bringing some attention to themselves.”

Montgomery and his staff will continue to evaluate each position throughout fall camp and into practices for UMass. As fall camp is just underway, it could be some time before the Tigers can definitively name a starter for some key positions, but the improvement the players have made since spring has been encouraging for Montgomery.