Auburn football: Ranking every SEC West QB room
No. 6: Ole Miss (Luke Altmyer, Jaxson Dart, Kinkead Dent)
Matt Corral’s departure from Oxford may be the most notable roster loss for any SEC West team on the offensive end, and Lane Kiffin may find himself in some serious trouble if he can’t land on a true replacement option under center.
Luke Altmyer and Jaxson Dart have 10 games of experience between the two of them, and while arm talent isn’t an issue, reps are. The 2022 schedule has a built-in four game grace period, but once Kentucky comes to The Grove in October, one of the two better have grabbed the brass ring or expectations at Ole Miss won’t be reached in a depressingly bleak manner. Kinkead Dent has been a journeyman in three seasons with the Rebels.
This coming campaign isn’t the most difficult until SEC West play begins–Vanderbilt is a nice buffer between UK and Auburn football Weeks 5 and 7–but someone in the Rebs QB room needs to quickly show they are ready, or else Kiffin may become a popular name for the next big coaching vacancy.
No. 5: Auburn football (Zach Calzada, T.J. Finley, Robby Ashford)
In recent weeks, several publications started playing up the three-way Auburn football quarterback battle taking place on the Plains between Zach Calzada, T.J. Finley, and Robby Ashford. Among them were CBS Sports and Alexander City Outlook.
It was odd conjecture considering most signs were pointing towards Calzada being a foregone conclusion as QB1, but Bryan Harsin dropped an interesting nugget at 2022 SEC Media Days that may indicate that there could be a QB-by-committee approach:
"“The thing about the quarterback position, too, is you may have other guys in there too that contribute. It’s not like I haven’t done that in the past, where you got another guy that also comes in and plays and is a part of it, maybe in a package and some other things.”"
On pure pedigree alone, the Tigers rank low in the SEC West at the QB position, but if Harsin is going to cook up special packages for a dual-threat change-of-pace local prodigy like Robby Ashford to throw defenses off their tracks when expecting the more traditional Calzada (or Finley) then the element of surprise boosts AU to No. 5.
No. 4: Texas A&M (Haynes King, Max Johnson, Conner Weigman)
Max Johnson has a huge left arm, and his arrival from LSU following the hiring of Brian Kelly gifted Jimbo Fisher an experienced upperclassman quarterback who eclipsed 300 passing yards five times in 2021.
Johnson’s arrival makes it a legitimate two-man competition with Haynes King for the Aggies’ starting signal-caller job, and after burning Fisher’s potent TAMU defense in Ed Orgeron’s final game in Death Valley last November, he could be the front-runner for the starting job.
King’s injury last season robbed him the chance of solidifying himself as the starter last season and not winning the job this year could well force the former 4-star Longview product to consider a new home. There’s a lot of question marks at the position for Fisher and co. to answer ASAP.