CBS Sports' Brad Crawford predicts Walker White usurping Payton Thorne as Hugh Freeze's Auburn football QB1 by season's end -- including that as his one hot take for the Tigers in a piece highlighting one for each SEC team.
Crawford relayed that the belief on the Plains is that White is the "future of the program under center."
"Hugh Freeze was quick to compliment each of his four scholarship quarterbacks coming out of spring, including his incumbent, but the belief around Auburn is 2024 signee Walker White is the future of the program under center," Crawford prefaced before saying, "Could he be the guy for Auburn later this year if Payton Thorne has another up-and-down campaign?"
Following the 2024 A-Day spring game, confidence in Thorne is actually higher than it has ever been. Not only did Thorne form good chemistry with incoming 5-star wideout Cam Coleman, but he threw some of his best balls overall since coming to Auburn.
White wasn't even the second-most impressive QB on the April 6. Holden Geriner looked the most impressive he ever had in orange and blue while Hank Brown continued to show potential in spurts. Everyone looked like a relative work in progress, while no one, besides Thorne, looked like a definitive imminent answer.
With that said, White was an early enrollee. He has time to make good on the promise of being the future of the program.
Predicting him starting as a true freshman definitely qualifies as a hot take.
Mizzou, Oklahoma, and Auburn football the only programs with negative hot take predictions
By and large, Crawford went positive with his predictions for the SEC. Unfortunately, AU was in a small group of schools that were given hot take predictions with a negative slant; along with Mizzou and Oklahoma.
Auburn is a popular riser prediction, while Mizzou looks ticketed for either contention or being exposed as a pretender and OU is a relative unknown in a new conference.