Asante, Faulk share thoughts on Oklahoma's quarterback

The assignment won’t get any easier for Auburn’s defense this weekend, as yet another mobile quarterback awaits the Tigers on Saturday. 

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables announced Monday that true freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. will get the start at quarterback against Auburn after replacing Jackson Arnold in last week’s loss to Tennessee. Arnold was benched for Hawkins after turning the ball over three times – two fumbles and one interception – in the first half. 

Hawkins showed glimpses of his dynamic playmaker ability versus the Vols, going 11-for-18 passing for 132 yards and a touchdown, adding 22 yards on the ground. Along with his solid throwing capability, he can create outside of the pocket and scramble for extended yardage. This sounds a bit too familiar to Auburn, as its failure to contain the quarterback has been haunting in the past two games.

Here’s what senior linebacker Eugene Asante and sophomore defensive end Keldrick Faulk had to say ahead of Auburn’s matchup against Hawkins and the Sooners:

On facing Hawkins

“Hawkins is a dynamic quarterback,” Asante said. “He’s certainly somebody that’s great with his legs and extremely fast, extremely talented. As a linebacker, I’m excited to get the challenge to go against him. He’s certainly somebody that you must key in all forms of the game – throwing the ball and running the ball.”

“We had a teammate (last year) just like him – Robby Ashford, to be specific,” Faulk said regarding how the team can prepare for Hawkins. “We practiced against that quarterback. I feel like our quarterback has the ability to run, so we’ve been practicing against it the whole spring, fall, and throughout the beginning of the season. I feel like we’ve been handling it pretty well. I just think with this quarterback, he’s really talented and we need to keep eyes on him while we rush him to make sure we don’t let him leak out of the pocket because he can be dangerous leaking out of it."

What the defense can improve on facing a mobile quarterback

“Whenever you’re going against a mobile quarterback, there are a lot of things that they can try to do when escaping the pocket," Asante said. “So understanding rush integrity, closing the space on a quarterback that’s mobile… When we get to third down situations – whether we have a spy or use a spy – get to him fast and sack him.” 

“It’ll be a good week for us to go out there and show what we can do,” Faulk said about the upcoming game. “But we also have to keep in mind that their young guy they have at quarterback can get the job done – he can run. We can’t allow him to keep the game in his hands. We’ve got to force the game into ours.”