The days of Jason Campbell, Brandon Cox and Dameyune Craig seem a long way away, as it is unusual for a quarterback to stay with the team they signed out of high school with and work their way into the starting position.
With the transfer portal such an important part of college football now, coaches can find the easiest, quickest fix at the most important position on the field, and most of the time, that means the players who have waited their turn end up transferring to look for greener pastures.
That’s definitely been the case at Auburn, which hasn’t had a quarterback who arrived on the Plains become a consistent starter since Bo Nix was wearing the orange and blue. And if you look at what the last five high school quarterback signees have done during their time with the Tigers, as AL.com’s Peter Rauterkus did, it’s a who ’s-who of players who have gone on to other places.
Auubrn has had bad luck signing quarterbacks out of high school
The most obvious quarterback is also the most recent in Deuce Knight, who left after only one season at Auburn due to the coaching change to Alex Golesh, who had his own plan by bringing in Byrum Brown, who played for him at USF. Knight is now at Ole Miss, where he will likely sit behind Trinidid Chambliss before being handed the keys to the Rebels’ offense.
In the one game he started at Auburn last season, Knight showed why he was so highly sought after out of high school, throwing for 239 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 162 yards and four more scores. Granted, that game against FCS-level Mercer, but Auburn fans came out of the game excited about the future.
The other four guys – Walker White, Hank Brown, Holden Geriner and Dematrius Davis Jr. – barely made any impact at all while with the Tigers. Brown did play well in the second half of the 2023 Music City Bowl, but by then, Maryland was already routing the Tigers. As for White, Geriner and Davis, it would take a real Auburn fanatic or historian to come up with their names even five years from now.
So, with Gary Chatman Jr. committing to Auburn on Saturday, he has a chance to do what not many quarterback signees have done on the Plains recently: make an impact.Â
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