Auburn Football: Why not to hype quarterback transfer Jarrett Stidham
By Ty Roush
Here we take a look at Auburn football transfer Jarrett Stidham, who is presented as one of the highest rated quarterbacks from the class of 2014.
Auburn football has been graced with a new quarterback, Jarrett Stidham, to add onto the list of seven on the roster. Somehow everything has been forgotten about Sean White and Woody Barrett, along with John Franklin III’s presence becoming more awkward by the week. Stidham not only brings intrigue to the conversation for who’ll become Auburn’s starting quarterback, he brings questions about how much he could do for next season.
The job already being spoon-fed to him, its a little weird with the amount of passing that was asked for White towards the end of the season. Often it was a question of when Auburn would run, not throw. There was a point in the season where Auburn didn’t play White for the first half of Vanderbilt, allowing for Franklin to throw only five or six passes total. White’s passing was then asked for a majority of the play calls as the season came to an end. Now, Auburn is just supposed to forget about him.
Auburn had lost their star offensive coordinator to UConn — something that is still confusing to most Tiger fans — only to be replaced by Arizona State’s Chip Lindsey, someone who has been known for his work with quarterbacks. Most notably on the Plains for Nick Marshall’s development into a Malzahn-oriented passing machine, Lindsey has the capacity to do a lot with the level of quarterback talent. White‘s progression has been evident since the beginning of the season, and its fair to say there is more to come.
Stidham arrives on the Plains following a transfer after Art Briles’ departure from Baylor University. He comes as the highest-rated quarterback recruit in modern times for the Tigers, as Cam Newton wasn’t a consensus 5-star while Stidham is the No. 1 rated dual-threat quarterback from the class of 2015. His one year at Baylor showed promise, and national championship dreams had become more real for the Bears.
But, with a new offensive coordinator, Stidham will have to earn the right to steal that starting role away from White or Barrett. Woody and Franklin both show dual-threat promise, while White fits perfectly into Lindsey’s pro-style quarterback scheming. Certainly he is favored to win it with ease, but there’s no time to ride a freight of hype until he actually does something.
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Hell, Auburn didn’t even expect Sean White to turn out so well — taking over for that Heisman favorite Jeremy Johnson.