QB who beat Clemson and Miami hitting portal, should be Auburn target

NC State’s MJ Morris, a big-armed quarterback who beat Clemson and Miami over a two-week span, is hitting the transfer portal in the offseason — and Auburn football should be in line for the legitimate dual-threat out of Carrollton, Georgia.

Like a potential pursuit of Calera native Cornelious “Quad” Brown IV, though, it shouldn’t be to add someone who’d be tasked with revamping what has been an unexplosive and uninspiring offensive attack for most of SEC play, but to supplement the depth of a QB room that could lose several arms this offseason.

Morris’s career numbers aren’t spectacular and have largely never been over his two seasons in Raleigh, but he was highly scouted coming out of high school and has the kind of winning experience lacking in roughly 99% of portal options.

Auburn football likely to lose at least one quarterback to transfer portal

There may be issues between Hugh Freeze and Robby Ashford that are going to eventually see the light in greater detail than what we currently know; which is not much. Ashford had his DNP of the season against Vanderbilt and there are whispers that he is done playing for Freeze due to disagreements on who should be in charge of the program.

Payton Thorne has come alive as AU’s starting signal-caller against Mississippi State and Vanderbilt in Week 9 and Week 10, but the Michigan State transfer likely received more criticism, much of it unwarranted, than he ever received in East Lansing. His future is unclear, but it certainly looks more and more like he’ll be playing out his final season of eligibility on the Plains.

Behind those two, Holden Geriner could be facing a second straight redshirt season himself, though he is starting to see more snaps in practice and could be the new face of the Tigers’ two-quarterback system. There’s no reason to think he’s looking elsewhere, but he’d be a starter at a lot of non-SEC schools. And possibly even some in-conference.

One QB will likely be calling it a career at AU after the 2023 season concludes and with Walker White incoming and potentially contending for the starting job in 2024, that number could rise.