Must be cautious with Nix

[aubiefifty 18,222]

With Joey Gatewood gone, Auburn must be more cautious with Bo Nix

Updated Oct 30, 2019;Posted Oct 30, 2019

4-5 minutes

Auburn Football

Getty Images

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - OCTOBER 26: Bo Nix #10 of the Auburn Tigers scrambles away from Jacob Phillips #6 of the LSU Tigers during the first half at Tiger Stadium on October 26, 2019 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

The weight of Auburn’s season now rests on Bo Nix’s shoulders.

Following the decision Wednesday by backup quarterback Joey Gatewood to leave the team and transfer — with his eyes set on being a starting quarterback at another program — Auburn’s depth chart at the position thinned considerably. Nix remains the starter, while 24-year-old Cord Sandberg has been elevated to backup and walk-on Wil Appleton is the third option, according to head coach Gus Malzahn.

Sandberg, a former minor league baseball player who graduated high school in 2013, has taken limited college reps — all in mop-up duty over the last two seasons, including just one appearance this year — and is still a developmental player at the position following his baseball career. It leaves Auburn without a truly viable backup quarterback for the final month of the regular season, and it will undoubtedly affect how Malzahn handles Nix over the final four games.

Whether he chooses to say so publicly, Malzahn will need to be more cautious with Nix the remainder of the year. When asked Wednesday if Gatewood’s departure would impact how often the Tigers run the ball with Nix, Malzahn was tight-lipped and evaded giving much detail.

The reality of the situation, however, is that Auburn cannot afford its 19-year-old quarterback to be injured. Not without the safety net that a backup like Gatewood, whom Malzahn said in August he felt Auburn could win with if necessary, presented.

Auburn’s offense has been more dynamic this season when it has gotten production in the run game from Nix, who has shown himself to be a capable ball-carrier — whether it’s escaping pressure in the backfield or taking off for scrambles or on designed runs.

“Bo’s shown he can extend plays and I think he’s a lot faster than a lot of people give him credit for,” Malzahn said in August.

His ability to make plays with his legs was crucial against Oregon in the season opener, when he had seven carries for 42 yards. He had 12 for 38 yards, including a game-sealing first-down run late against Texas A&M on the road. His best rushing performance came in Auburn’s blowout of Mississippi State, when he had seven carries for 56 yards and a touchdown in a game that saw Auburn score a season-high 56 points and average a season-best 8.38 yards per play.

“Any time our quarterback is a runner, it opens up other things, so that’s always important,” Malzahn said Tuesday. “If that opportunity presents itself — sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t — but when our quarterback’s a runner and can be effective, it really opens things up.”

In Auburn’s two losses this season, Nix had two of his worst rushing performances of the year. Including the two sacks he took totaling 28 yards of losses, he had 10 carries for 18 yards against Florida. Against LSU, when Auburn ran just two designed quarterback runs for Nix, he had nine carries for a loss of 16 yards — minus-32 of those coming on three sacks — and a touchdown on a quarterback sneak.

Therein lies the dilemma for Auburn and the delicate balancing act Malzahn will have to perform over the next four games. Auburn’s offense is more open when Nix is incorporated into the running game, but having the true freshman carry the ball more often will make him susceptible to more hits — and the potential for injury.

That’s something Malzahn will have to be cautious about in how he gameplans and calls plays, and it’s also something Nix must be smart about when the situations present themselves.

Said Malzahn: “We’ll have a plan for each game as far as that goes.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[gr82be 14,906]

12 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

Said Malzahn: “We’ll have a plan for each game as far as that goes.”

In other words...

[Never2Yield 1,043]

20 minutes ago, gr82be said:

In other words...

I was thinking more like ...

"I'm screwed"

[PigskinPat 2,610]

Gus will be testing out a modified uniform for Bo at today’s practice:

 

 

 

[Farmer Brown 2,461]

Everybody has a "package". 

[aubiefifty 18,222]

3 minutes ago, Farmer Brown said:

Everybody has a "package". 

i bet my package is bigger than your package..........lol   grins

[Farmer Brown 2,461]

We will never know. I didn't mean that in that manner. I don't think that way. Gus loves using that word. 

[jAUSon 2,836]

1 minute ago, aubiefifty said:

i bet my package is bigger than your package..........lol   grins

 

[Quietmaninthecorner 2,032]

Cautious sounds like a way to get someone hurt.    You just have to just play. You can't play worried about getting injured.

[Quietmaninthecorner 2,032]

5 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

i bet my package is bigger than your package..........lol   grins

[aubiefifty 18,222]

3 minutes ago, jAUSon said:

 

jason should you not be sharpening knives and such for tonight? it is your big night right?

[jAUSon 2,836]

58 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

jason should you not be sharpening knives and such for tonight? it is your big night right?

I'm gonna walk 87 miles with my runt kids carrying half their costumes in a cold front on the back-end of an all day rain, collecting candy they won't eat! The hockey mask is retired.

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

It would be a cruel twist if Nix got hurt in one of these games. 

[bigbird 60,939]

Just now, WalkingCarpet said:

It would be a cruel twist if Nix got hurt in one of these games. 

He'd still be trotted out there a la Sean White

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

1 minute ago, bigbird said:

He'd still be trotted out there a la Sean White

I'm still mad we lost that Georgia game.

[doverstutts 1,643]

This should make you feel secure, according to Cole C. on Jox, one minute ago, if Bo and Cord both went down, BOOBIE would be 3rd man in line. Oh my goodness

[SuperAUsome09 749]

Very slim chance Bo keeps the ball now that's for sure. So zone read is negated for the most part.

[SaltyTiger 8,568]

10 minutes ago, doverstutts said:

if Bo and Cord both went down

 

[api1957 1,783]

[aubiefifty 18,222]

2 hours ago, jAUSon said:

I'm gonna walk 87 miles with my runt kids carrying half their costumes in a cold front on the back-end of an all day rain, collecting candy they won't eat! The hockey mask is retired.

i bought a michael myers mask  a few years back and i was a singer in a band and i was going to wear it all night singing but i could not get a big enough hole to sing through without tearing up the mack. shrugs.

[Zeek 16,953]

This translates roughly to, "Bo Nix will not run the ball for the remainder of the 2019-20 season. I don't want it to happen, and I'm knocking on wood, but imagine Bo and Cord go down... who's QB3? Wil Appleton? Would Boobee take over at QB?

 

[gr82be 14,906]

5 minutes ago, Zeek said:

This translates roughly to, "Bo Nix will not run the ball for the remainder of the 2019-20 season. I don't want it to happen, and I'm knocking on wood, but imagine Bo and Cord go down... who's QB3? Wil Appleton? Would Boobee take over at QB?

 

No worries, Wade Christopher never runs out of eligibility. 

[leglessdan 1,934]

2 hours ago, doverstutts said:

This should make you feel secure, according to Cole C. on Jox, one minute ago, if Bo and Cord both went down, BOOBIE would be 3rd man in line. Oh my goodness

Idk bud, Kentucky is doing it with mixed success. I'm sure Gus is taking notes.😒

[LeonardAU 237]

We're headed back towards the promise land of that Jeff Klein led 1999 team!

[Tiger 8,854]

It would be Auburn as hell for Bo to sprain his ankle this weekend