This past weekend Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn told reporters the quarterback competition will go on a little longer, even though kickoff against second-ranked Clemson is 11 days away.
According to AL.com, Sean White, Jeremy Johnson and John Franklin III are still taking snaps with the first-team offense. With Clemson beginning its preparations for Auburn on Monday, not having a quarterback might work to Auburn’s advantage.
Or will it?
All three Auburn quarterbacks bring something different to the table, and instead of Clemson focusing on one guy, they have to concentrate on three.
No problem says Clemson safety/nickel back Korrin Wiggins.
“We have a scouting report on them. They are pretty much going to run the same offense,” he said following Monday’s practice. “Not knowing exactly who is playing, I guess you can kind of say that is bad (for us), but I guess you can say not so much (either).
“It’s cool. We are just going to go out there and play some football and worry about Clemson. That’s about it.”
Clemson will also have to worry about the possibility of seeing five running backs, though it appears Kerryon Johnson will start in the Sept. 3 opener. He rushed for a little more than 200 yards and three touchdowns as a freshman in 2015.
Clemson linebacker Dorian O’Daniel says the unknowns don’t bother the ACC’s Tigers because they know what Auburn likes to do from an offensive standpoint.
“They are going to apply what they do regardless of what we throw at them so we just have to focus on our game plan and that is it,” the junior said.
What is it Auburn likes to do? It wants to run the football. Last year, the SEC’s Tigers ranked fifth in the conference and averaged 196.3 yards a game on the ground. Not bad considering they had virtually no passing game to complement it as they ranked 12th in passing at 173.7 yards a game through the air.
“They are a run-first team. They look like they have a couple of explosive players so they are a pretty good team,” Wiggins said.
Franklin is one of those explosive players. The former Florida State quarterback reportedly ran a 4.28 over the summer. Auburn defensive end Carl Lawson says he is so fast he feels sorry for opposing defenses who will try to be catching him from behind.
“I don’t know too much about him. I’m really just kind of focusing on Clemson,” Wiggins said. “That’s about it. You have to play with technique. You have to play with discipline. That will do it.
“Speed is a good thing, but if you play with discipline and technique it can be countered.”
But preparation could make it even better, and right now Clemson has no idea who it is going to have to prepare for.
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