Auburn football has found success over the years because of the explosive playmaking of the man under center.
When the Tigers shocked the world and ran the table in 2010, it was the brilliance of Heisman winner Cam Newton that elevated Auburn to the National Championship.
The next time Auburn football was in the National Championship game, it was Nick Marshall’s dynamic dual-threat profile that brought the team within minutes of its second national championship in four years and the chance to etch themselves in the record books as multi-time winners in the same decade.
Only Alabama and USC can lay a stake in that claim in the new millennium. Close, but no cigar for the 2013 Tigers, but Auburn hasn’t been very close since then.
The QB position is once again one that has been under the microscope on the Plains in recent times, particularly because of the words of Patriots QB coach Jordan Palmer about Jarrett Stidham’s lack of preparedness to take NFL snaps due to Gus Malzahn’s offensive schemes:
"“Gus Malzahn’s offense at Auburn, I think, even further from the NFL than Art Briles’,” Palmer continued. “In Gus Malzahn’s offense, they don’t even call the receivers – they’re not even letters, they’re numbers. There’s a one-man, a five-man, a seven-man, a three-man.“And this isn’t an indictment on his offense. He won a national championship with Cam Newton. I’m just saying, what they expect you to know on offense at Auburn is the furthest thing from NFL offenses."
Essentially, don’t hate the player, but hate the game (that Malzahn had his QBs play).
Malzahn is gone now, which may be good news for junior quarterback Bo Nix, who enters the 2021 season with high hopes of finally fulfilling the promise many saw in the Pinson, Alabama product.
His new coach, Bryan Harsin, not only has a more imaginative offense planned for the former 5-star recruit, but he also has unwavering belief in the man manning the position Harsin himself played in college, as the former Boise State head coach said in the post-A-Day presser (via Henry Zimmer of The Plainsman):
"Bo [Nix] is a weapon. When guys around him are playing well, then our quarterback is going to play really well."- Auburn HC Bryan Harsin on starting quarterback Bo Nix.
— Henry Zimmer (@henryzimmer) April 17, 2021
The talent is there for Nix. When Auburn football had a signal caller of his caliber last (on paper at least), the Tigers went to the BCS National Championship game. With support from the new leading locker room voice, and offensive schemes that aren’t so predictable and bland, Nix could finally show the world what Malzahn’s staff saw in him when they handed him the keys to the offense.
War Eagle!