This is not a drill. I repeat: this is not a drill. Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze has stuffed Reverend Dabo in a locker on the recruiting trail. Arkansas 4-star quarterback Walker White, who has been Auburn’s top target since Freeze was hired, committed to the Tigers and completely shut down his recruitment. With competing offers from, notably, Clemson and Baylor, as well as Arkansas, Auburn had a lot of work to do. And they did.
Walker White also signals a new era of Auburn quarterbacks. Whereas Gus Malzahn quarterbacks were the most effective when they were a serious threat on zone read plays, and Bryan Harsin QBs really just weren’t effective (I’ll touch on both in another article), Freeze’s performance quarterbacks are the end all, be all of his team. Where they go, the team goes.
The Auburn Football Offense
In what is expected to be a building year for the identity of the program, Coach Freeze and Auburn football is turning to experienced play-caller and noted Art Briles disciple Philip Montgomery to help turn the offense back to its explosive days. The spread iso offense that made Baylor so unstoppable from 2011-2015 is coming to Auburn.
While Freeze has been a big part of the tempo and RPO innovation in college football, Montgomery was arguably the biggest. In the two years that Montgomery was Baylor’s sole offensive coordinator, Baylor averaged 85 plays per game and 600, I repeat, 600 yards per game. This whole also averaging 51 points per game and having more games scoring 60 than they did less than 40.
Walker White’s Fit in the System
Walker White stands at 6’4” and has some of the best physical tools a QB can have at the high school level. Best of all, he still has his senior season to improve. We could be looking at a potential 5-star QB commit in year one under Freeze.
When watching Walker play, one QB jumps out to me: Bryce Petty. Petty, ironically, was the QB when Montgomery was the sole playcaller at Baylor. Petty ran in the 4.8s but had long strides and could cover ground. His arm is what made him special.
Similarly, White’s arm is already fun to watch. He makes a lot of great throws to both the field and the boundary, as well as down the field. Where White can separate himself is his legs. He’s not a Marcus Mariota-type runner who’s in the 4.4s, but he has legit 4.6 speed and can use it.
Conclusion
There’s really only one way to put this: Hugh Freeze has QB1 in the bag. War Eagle everybody.