Spears tabs Gatewood as nation's breakout player

[aubiefifty 18,200]

247sports.com

Marcus Spears tabs Joey Gatewood as nation's breakout player

ByBrad Crawford

3-4 minutes

Auburn hasn't officially decided on its starting quarterback this season, but Joey Gatewood checks all the boxes as a potential difference-maker, the primary reason he will be college football's breakout player in 2019, according to ESPN analyst and former LSU great Marcus Spears.

Spears made the surprising declaration during Thursday's appearance on Get Up! alongside Laura Rutledge and Booger McFarland.

"Gus Malzahn has proven time and time again when I have a dual-threat quarterback that can run effectively, I can have an offense as prolific as anybody in the country,” Spears said. “Success we’ve seen with Auburn, sustained success and ability to beat Alabama and win big games, has been with quarterbacks that can move and he can move.

"Nick Marshall did it. Cam Newton did it. Gus Malzahn has taken over play-calling for Auburn again and I think that guy has a lot to do with why he wanted to take the reins on this offense.”

At 6-foot-5 and 233 pounds, Gatewood is considerably bigger than true freshman Bo Nix, the competitor he'll share snaps with early in fall camp under center. A former sprinter on his high school track team, Gatewood is faster than he looks for his size and has the quickness to pull away from defenders.

Terrific in spots this spring, Gatewood showcased an array of abilities that could potentially correct Auburn's issues on offense this fall and unlock another level for a team with several playmakers opposite of him.

Gatewood threw for 130 yards and two touchdowns on 8 of 12 passing during the A-Day game, which included seven completions, 123 yards and two scores in the first half. He rushed only once for 1 yard because of the restrictions placed on the quarterbacks, who were not allowed to be tackled by defenders, per AuburnUndercover's Brandon Marcello.

"I’m telling you," receiver Seth Williams said. "He’s another Cam Newton back there. Once he gets live, he turns into a whole other person. Like, you couldn’t see it for real with this spring, with the scrimmage, the QBs not live — but once they’re live, I don’t think, [the defense] can’t get back there."

Malzahn played it safe at SEC Media Days, telling the SEC Network crew he thinks the Tigers can win with either quarterback in the competition.

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"In the spring, we did go live in a scrimmage and gave it the chance to really see what those guys could do. Of course Joey Gatewood and Bo Nix, those are the two guys that separated themselves," he said. "What I like about both of those guys, they both are run threats. Any time your quarterback is a run threat, it really changes the dynamics of what you can do.

"They can extend plays. They have big arms. They’re young and inexperienced but they have a great attitude. They want to be good. They want to lead this team. I think the quarterback position is in good hands for the near future."

">247Sports

[gr82be 14,901]

I'm getting really pumped up about the possibilities if Gatewood is the starter based on history with Gus. I wasn't originally on board because of what we were hearing last year but the updates this summer have been encouraging. It sounds like the offense has chosen their leader based on comments previously mentioned and that makes it easier for Gus. Also I fully believe it makes it easier for Nix to accept, at least for this year. I hope we all can give JG time to grow and learn from his mistakes because he'll make some but as we've seen before, so do experienced QBs. The upside is exciting. This should be fun. I think we'll see Joey smiling on the sideline a lot this season but he'll have a real reason to smile...and yes, I went there again. When you're getting beat you shouldn't be smiling. 

[aujeff11 6,243]

 

And the hype train has officially taken off!

 

Anything can happen, but what he said is still very believable.  

 

 

[weagl1 1,809]

I certainly hope Gatewood or Nix (or both) become a breakout player.  That would be great!  But I also remember a former QB being promoted as a Heisman candidate right up until his first game as the starter so I’m going to wait til I see them in live action before I get to giddy about it. 

[aubiefifty 18,200]

40 minutes ago, weagl1 said:

I certainly hope Gatewood or Nix (or both) become a breakout player.  That would be great!  But I also remember a former QB being promoted as a Heisman candidate right up until his first game as the starter so I’m going to wait til I see them in live action before I get to giddy about it. 

i believe it will be a very short period of time that joey and bo both rock the house with their talent.

[Howard Roark 195]

Brandon Marcello interviewed both Joey's private QB coach and his former HS coach on his podcast published today

Link

[CodeRocket 413]

Cam Newton mostly stayed healthy during his one year as the starter. Nick Marshall missed at least one game with a strained knee, I believe, during his two years as the starter. We may have been fortunate with those two concerning injuries. I have seen other teams with running QB's go through several in a season. I hope no one gets injured this coming season, but we do play in the SEC west where "angels fear to tread". I think all three QB's should be thinking about getting ready to play and Gus should be thinking about that as well.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

1 minute ago, CodeRocket said:

 Gus should be thinking about that as well.

I believe Gus thinks about that 24/7.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

Joey seems to have all the physical tools necessary to be a good QB1.  I hope his ability to read defenses and find the open man are there as well.  Those can be hard for Freshman QBs with DCs disguising coverages and blitzers.

[oracle79 3,569]

Anyone know how old Gatewood is? Roster lists his birthday as April but doesn't give a year.  19 vs 20 doesn't seem like much, but it is huge at that age.

[atl-tiger 655]

3 hours ago, dyehardfanAU said:

Joey seems to have all the physical tools necessary to be a good QB1.  I hope his ability to read defenses and find the open man are there as well.  Those can be hard for Freshman QBs with DCs disguising coverages and blitzers.

Bingo. Can't be one dimensional or we're looking at a Paul Johnson offense. 

[AUsince72 11,084]

Glad to see Gus is being more careful about preseason praise.

Much like a player announcing he's going to "The University of Auburn" usually turning out to be really good, Gus not bragging is a good sign. 

[KolchakAU85 430]

Oh no, this is a curse.  Reminiscent of Jeremy Johnson being coronated before he even became a starter.

But seriously, I hope Gatewood doesn't even hear about Spears' prediction.  Maybe too much for a redshirt freshman to handle.

[DAG 34,725]

1 minute ago, KolchakAU85 said:

Oh no, this is a curse.  Reminiscent of Jeremy Johnson being coronated before he became a starter.

But seriously, I hope Gatewood doesn't even hear about Spears' prediction.  Maybe too much for a redshirt freshman to handle.

Why? People can’t have it both ways. If you are good, people are going to expect you to perform and it is up to you to show it in action. As an athlete you should consider this the highest compliment. 

[KolchakAU85 430]

Just now, DAG said:

Why? People can’t have it both ways. If you are good, people are going to expect you to perform and it is up to you to show it in action. As an athlete you should consider this the highest compliment. 

As an example, I try to put myself in the position of being a hyped college player.  And I think I'd definitely be impacted by a well-regarded ESPN analyst predicting me as the "breakout player" in all of college football this year, even though I've never taken a truly meaningful snap in college football.

That's hard to live up to.

Just my opinion.

[DAG 34,725]

4 minutes ago, KolchakAU85 said:

As an example, I try to put myself in the position of being a hyped college player.  And I think I'd definitely be impacted by a well-regarded ESPN analyst predicting me as the "breakout player" in all of college football this year, even though I've never taken a truly meaningful snap in college football.

That's hard to live up to.

Just my opinion.

That's fair but most of these guys are vying for positions at the next level, where they are expecting to make millions of dollars to perform.  Things like this are tests to see, how you handle pressure and more importantly adversity. If you can't handle this (Not you, but the collegiate players), how are you going to handle the pressure of being the face of a franchise or even being on that final 53 man roster? The pressure only mounts more from here on out.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,035]

I wish we couldn’t compare every situation of someone being hyped to Jeremy...Jeremy clearly just wasn’t ready for that level of attention. We’ve had ONE instance of that between Stidham, Marshall, Cam, etc. all the other guys that have gotten hype, that weren’t screwed by an offense that didn’t fit their skill set (Kiehl), did what they had to do 

[aujeff11 6,243]

22 hours ago, Howard Roark said:

Brandon Marcello interviewed both Joey's private QB coach and his former HS coach on his podcast published today

Link

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

On 7/26/2019 at 9:13 AM, dyehardfanAU said:

Joey seems to have all the physical tools necessary to be a good QB1.  I hope his ability to read defenses and find the open man are there as well.  Those can be hard for Freshman QBs with DCs disguising coverages and blitzers.

I think this is Joey’s biggest challenge. He hasn’t spent a lot of time in games (high school or college)actually trying to read defense like Bo has in high school) That’s said with his physical size and athletic ability he can afford to miss on a few while he learns and still make positive yards in mis-read plays. Pulling for him and Bo and In fact the whole team. Hope they curb stomp every team they play 😁

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

On 7/26/2019 at 10:56 PM, KolchakAU85 said:

As an example, I try to put myself in the position of being a hyped college player.  And I think I'd definitely be impacted by a well-regarded ESPN analyst predicting me as the "breakout player" in all of college football this year, even though I've never taken a truly meaningful snap in college football.

That's hard to live up to.

Just my opinion.

I can almost promise you that everyone of these athletes believe in their ability. They wouldn’t be where they are if they didn’t. Does it change them when someone brags on them ? No. The same when the naysayers come out too. Believe it or not these players are much to wrapped up in preparing themselves for the season ahead  to be paying attention to the media or message boards.JMHO