Auburn football could be without key offensive playmaking running back Jarquez Hunter during the 2023 season due to an ongoing investigation into a sex tape that was leaked to social media over the offseason — with Hugh Freeze’s vague statements about having the RB on the active roster by the fall being caused by an inability to comment on the situation instilling a great deal of worry.
Auburn coach Hugh Freeze on the status of RB Jarquez Hunter. "I can’t comment on the university’s policies and procedures." Declined to say if he thought he'd be available this year.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 18, 2023
“I can’t comment on University policies or procedures,” Freeze said at SEC Media Days 2023 when asked about Hunter. On3’s Justin Hokanson believes the potential loss of Hunter would change the dynamic “quite a bit.”
“Yeah, that changes the dynamic quite a bit of what we think Auburn can do,” Hokanson said of Hunter’s potential absence on a June On3 Roundtable. “And again, there’s a lot unknown. We just know that Jarquez Hunter is involved in a university investigation. Past that, we really don’t know many details. So until we do, we have to at least talk about the fact that he might not be available when August fall camp starts. And if he’s not practicing, then what? So like, until we have a clear statement from the university, we don’t know.”
Auburn football backup running backs have a chance to become instant stars
Given how explosive Hunter was during his first two seasons under Bryan Harsin/Cadillac Williams behind an offensive line that was underrecruited by Harsin and Gus Malzahn before him, it’s not a stretch to say that Hunter could’ve been in line for a massive jump behind a vastly improved Freeze-recruited OL.
Unfortunately, we may not get that chance.
If that’s the case, Brian Battie and Damari Alston become a platoon the Tigers desperately need to outperform what their expectations were in Year 1 and Year 2 in the SEC, respectively. The versatile Battie was never profiled as an RB1 due to his size, but Alston has a similar build to the potentially absent Hunter and could become the team’s new workhorse back.
In reality, both Battie and Alston have the chance to become instant stars — not by directly replacing Hunter, but by doing enough to overcome his absence via well-timed game-breaking runs/catches out of the backfield and in the return game.