Auburn could pursue Group of Five transfer QB to mentor Walker White
Auburn football could pursue Group of Five transfer quarterback Hayden Wolff (Old Dominion) for the purpose of mentoring Class of 2024 QB Walker White — this at least according to Auburn Daily’s Dylan Larck.
“With the uncertainty around Auburn’s current quarterback battle, Wolff would give the Tigers an experienced quarterback for the 2023 and 2024 seasons and could be a good mentor for 2024 four-star commit Walker White,” Larck wrote.
AU currently has Robby Ashford, Holden Geriner, TJ Finley, and (come the summer) Hank Brown on scholarship, with Sawyer Pate and Jackson Barkley as walk-ons. Given Finley’s recent comments hinting at not sticking around with another QB in tow, Wolff could well become the veteran in the room should the six-foot-seven LSU QB take to the portal.
Hayden Wolff has experience playing against Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze
While Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze is more of an offensive mind than someone who makes schemes defensively, Wolff has experience playing against Freeze back when Wolff’s Old Dominion Monarchs battled the Liberty Flames back on October 1 as Larck recalled.
“During the 2022 season, the 4-1 Freeze-led Liberty Flames walked into S.B. Ballard Stadium in Norfolk, VA to take on the 2-3 Old Dominion Monarchs, in which the game ended with a 38-24 victory for the Flames,” Larck said. “Although Liberty won the game by 14, the score doesn’t tell the whole story as the Monarchs went stride-for-stride with the Flames until the very end, led by quarterback Hayden Wolff. Wolff ended the game with 297 yards, two touchdowns, a rushing touchdown and only had one interception against the 36th ranked defense in college football.”
Hayden Wolff wants to be ‘closer to home’
From the sounds of it, Wolff will be making his way to the southeast, but whether that means the Southeastern Conference is still to be determined. Old Dominion head coach Ricky Rahne relayed Wolff’s love of his home-state of Florida when explaining the QB’s decision to transfer.
“I think that it became time in his mind that he’d done everything that he could here, and he wanted to move on,” Rahne said via The Virginian-Pilot. “If there was a possibility that he could do that closer to home, then he was going to do that. I’ve always respected how open he’s been about how close he is to his family and how much he loves the state of Florida.”
As Rahne said, Wolff has pinpointed his next school just yet.
“I do not think he has a destination in mind, no — but I do think he’d like to be closer to home, if at all possible,” Rahne said.