Auburn QB ‘would ideally follow the Malik Willis path to success’
According to Saturday Down South’s Connor O’Gara, Auburn football quarterback Robby Ashford “would ideally follow the Malik Willis path to success” under first-year Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze. Freeze coached up Willis, a former Gus Malzahn-era commit, into a third-round draft pick following the QB’s Liberty transfer after Willis couldn’t beat out Jarrett Stidham to be AU’s starter in 2017 and 2018.
O’Gara, in making the connection between Ashford and Willis, was referring to the difficult evaluation of the former Oregon commit following a rained out A-Day spring game on April 9 within the confines of Jordan-Hare Stadium.
“You could’ve made the case that Ashford had the most to lose as the incumbent starter who would ideally follow the Malik Willis path to success under Freeze,” O’Gara prefaced before saying, “The issue with Ashford is that he’s a rather incomplete evaluation. He might’ve taken over the starting job in 2022, but after his first full offseason playing football (he played baseball in his first 2 springs at Oregon), he was still extremely raw as a passer. It helped Auburn’s offense have a pulse in the final month when the mobile Ashford used his legs even more, but it didn’t help Freeze’s future evaluation.”
‘One would think’ Hugh Freeze would hit transfer portal again to find Auburn football QB
O’Gara doesn’t believe the Auburn football QB situation is anywhere close to settled following an A-Day scrimmage that was always going to make it tough to evaluate the room due to the non-contact restraints. In the Saturday Down South writer’s viewpoint, another trip to the portal wouldn’t be shocking given Freeze’s prior portal QB interest.
“Is Freeze going to dip into the transfer portal to find his next QB1? The post-spring window now goes from April 15-29 instead of May 1-15,” O’Gara wrote. “One would think after there was reportedly mutual interest in Grayson McCall and Spencer Sanders that Freeze will again test the waters of the portal.”
Freeze doesn’t sound overly enthused about anyone in the QB room, and recently challenged anyone who had a problem with competition — saying that such a player probably wouldn’t succeed anyway.
A portal trip designed to find more QB room competition sounds like the next logical step for the new coaching staff.