When looking at the Auburn football quarterbacks room ahead of head coach Bryan Harsin’s second season on the Plains, fans thought for sure that there would be nothing to worry about when it came to who would be leading the Tigers’ offense come fall.
Well, the season has arrived, and nearly four weeks in, there is still not a lot of clarity surrounding the quarterback plan. TJ Finley is considered day-to-day with a shoulder injury sustained in the Penn State game, and will be unavailable this weekend in the SEC opener. Zach Calzada will undergo a second shoulder surgery and miss the remainder of the season.
This means that Auburn football’s starting quarterback against Missouri will be Robby Ashford, who has gotten plenty of playtime so far but has not started a game. Ashford will be expected to step up this weekend, with true freshman Holden Geriner as his backup.
Throughout the offseason and during fall camp, Geriner was repeatedly praised for his athleticism by teammates and coaches, and the praise did not falter this week as Geriner took snaps with the first team in preparation for Missouri, per AL.com:
"“That man can zip it,” Auburn pass rusher Marcus Harris said about Geriner this week. “The first week he was on scout team, and he was just dotting up receivers, and he’s a pretty good quarterback. As his time goes on at Auburn, I feel he’s going to be great. He has one of the best balls I’ve seen, and I think he’s going to be great.”"
Of course, the hope is that Ashford steps up and is able to provide some sort of consistency and rhythm for the offense, but it seems that there is complete confidence in Holden Geriner’s ability to come in this weekend, should Ashford need it.