It’s not been the easiest season for Auburn football fans thus far, even though the Tigers have started off 2-0 and have a point differential of 34 against Mercer Week 1 and San Jose State this past Saturday.
The secondary was carved up by Spartans signal-caller Chevan Cordeiro, with Jaylin Simpson, in particular, struggling in man coverage. So far, Tigers DBs have forced zero turnovers against FCS Mercer and San Jose State. Tank Bigsby got minimal push from his offensive line for many of his runs against SJSU’s defense. While he and Jarquez Hunter have been able to find the end zone seven times, QB Robby Ashford ended up being the leading rusher in both total yardage and yards per carry.
Worst yet, though, is that neither T.J. Finley nor Ashford have definitively taken the reins as the leader of the offense, having thrown a combined four picks against far less imposing defenses than the ones they will now face from now until the end of the season.
As the old saying goes, ‘if you have multiple quarterbacks, you have none.’ Saturday Down South’s Matt Hayes subscribes to that notion, saying bluntly that ‘Auburn doesn’t have a quarterback’ in a piece entitled ‘Auburn has a QB problem that’s going to get Bryan Harsin fired.’
Penn State is the perfect time for an Auburn football QB to lock down the starting job
One of the biggest games of the 2022 season is Week 3’s non-conference clash with the Nittany Lions from the north. After last year’s Happy Valley White Out went down to the wire, many are expecting a similarly enthralling clash in the Jordan-Hare Stadium orange-out. Given this is the first Big Ten road game on the Plains for any school in history, there’s already pressure to represent the SEC against its next biggest conference competitor.
This one is going to have a big-game feel and all eyes will be on the CBS-broadcasted clash at 2:30 central time. There is no better time for T.J. Finley or Robby Ashford (or perhaps a wild card) to step up and lock down the starting QB job for Auburn football.