Auburn football transfer ‘the most interesting offensive player on the roster’
The Auburn football roster will see a good number of transfers at every offensive position beside the quarterback position — and even the QB room could see a transfer portal addition following the spring. Hugh Freeze and his staff have done a masterful job picking up the recruiting slack from the last regime for the first season of the Freeze era, adding several impact players from the G5 level.
One of those recruits, USF transfer Brian Battie, was called by CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee the “most interesting offensive player on the roster” during a recent deep-dive into Freeze’s goals — including making Auburn football relevant again and upending Alabama — during the 2023 season.
“Tank Bigsby is gone and Jarquez Hunter will likely ascend to the top spot on the depth chart, but Battie might be the most interesting offensive player on the roster in 2023,” Sallee wrote. “He rushed for 1,186 yards and eight touchdowns last year for USF and added 659 yards on kickoff returns. If Hunter is Batman, expect Battie to serve the Robin role. He can become Auburn’s version of a Swiss Army Knife.”
What Hugh Freeze needs to do to get most out of Robby Ashford in Auburn football offense
Sallee broke down what Freeze needs to do in order to get the most out of incumbent starter Robby Ashford — and it merely includes figuring out what more traditional QB skills the Hoover native has in his game that Freeze could use to complement his elite scrambling abilities.
“It’s not like Ashford has to be Tom Brady out there,” Sallee prefaced before saying, “All Freeze needs to do is find a few things that Ashford does well as a passer, and that’ll go a long way toward complementing his running prowess; his 709 yards and seven touchdowns last year were good for second on the team.”
Ashford is the presumed favorite for the starting job given his improvements as the 2022 season went on, but TJ Finley and Holden Geriner’s more traditional passing profiles could also entice Freeze and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery. However, Ashford’s abilities do make him an intriguing fit for Montgomery’s RPO-heavy offensive schemes.