Mike Farrell of the Mike Farrell Sports brand is hopeful about incoming 2024 recruit Walker White, but believes that other than the Little Rock Christian Academy star, the Auburn football quarterback room's cupboard is "bare."
"Hugh Freeze needed a big QB recruit in his first full year, and White has a chance to be crucial in this rebuild," Farrell prefaced before saying, "He’s honestly the future of the program at the position as the cupboard is bare."
Tiger fans may not like the insinuation that AU's QB room isn't up to snuff after Hank Brown's surprising Music City Bowl heroics in the fourth quarter, but that was after the game was already in hand for Maryland. The program's top option before the 2023 season began, Payton Thone, had five sub-100-yard outings and fumbled the chance to overcome that and remain the starter even after Hugh Freeze endorsed him as the guy to beat for the QB1 role moving forward ahead of the bowl game.
"We have one of the top returning QBs in Power Five with wins," Freeze said (h/t On3's Justin Hokanson). "I believe if we get the right pieces around him...I think our QB room will be fine next year. That is my belief. I thought he showed, once he settled in, what he could do."
Walker White the building block that brought blue-chip receiving talent to Auburn football
Cam Coleman, Perry Thompson, Bryce Cain, and Malcolm Simmons, the Freeze Four if you will, didn't see what Thorne did during the 2023 season and say, 'hey, there's no better springboard to the NFL than catching passes from Payton Thorne.'
Something, or someone, else gave the group hope. Freeze can preach about what receivers can expect when they get to Auburn all he wants, but at the end of the day, those receivers committed because of who they'd be catching passes from.
White is a major reason why that group committed, just as he's why other 2024 and 2025 recruits have too. Freeze's pitch to recruits includes, if not features, what White's presence may lead to if they join him on the Plains.
Farrell is spot on. White is the future under center for AU.