QB Battle this spring

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All eyes on Auburn’s quarterback position entering spring practice

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

6-8 minutes

We’re taking a look at each position group as Auburn prepares to open spring practice on March 14. The first of an 11-part series looks at the quarterbacks.

The Bo Nix era at Auburn is over. After three years as Auburn’s starting quarterback, Nix transferred after the end of the regular season, reuniting with one of his former offensive coordinators — Kenny Dillingham — at Oregon for his senior season. That means for the first time since 2019, when Nix beat out Malik Willis and Joey Gatewood, the Tigers will have a full-on competition for the starting quarterback job.

It’ll be a five-man for the role of QB1, with a new quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator overseeing the group, as Bryan Harsin elevated Eric Kiesau to OC and shifted him from wide receivers coach to quarterbacks coach. The Tigers have two returning options at the position, including T.J. Finley—who started the final three games of 2021 after Nix fractured his ankle in November—and redshirt freshman Dematrius Davis. Auburn also added three new faces to the fold, with Texas A&M transfer Zach Calzada and Oregon transfer Robby Ashford, as well as four-star freshman Holden Geriner.

Read more Auburn football: Meet Bryan Harsin’s 2022 coaching staff

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How the competition shakes out throughout spring practices and, if necessary, into fall camp will be the biggest on-field storyline for Auburn entering Year 2 of the Harsin era.

Projected depth chart:

T.J. Finley, junior OR

Dematrius Davis, redshirt freshman OR

Zach Calzada, redshirt junior OR

Robby Ashford, redshirt sophomore OR

Holden Geriner, freshman

Departed: Bo Nix, transferred to Oregon; Grant Loy, graduated.

Due to arrive in the fall: N/A

Outlook: The most important position battle of the offseason will officially get underway when Auburn takes the practice field in less than two weeks for the first time this spring. Nix was a staple at the position the last three seasons, even if his play was uneven during his time as Auburn’s starting quarterback. Now he’s gone, off to the Pac-12, and Auburn has to sort out its quarterback position this offseason.

All eyes will be on the Tigers’ quarterbacks room, which features two veterans with starting experience in the SEC West and three options who have yet to take a snap at the college level. Finley is expected to open spring as the first quarterback to get first-team reps after he finished last season as the team’s starter following Nix’s season-ending ankle injury.

Finley, a former LSU transfer who started five games there as a freshman in 2020, started each of the final three games for Auburn last season — all losses as the offense sputtered in the second half of games. The high point of his first season on the Plains came in September, when he came off the bench and delivered a second-half comeback win at home against Georgia State. He finished the season with 827 passing yards and six touchdowns against one interception while completing just 54.7 percent of his passes. He acknowledged after Auburn’s Birmingham Bowl loss that it was “time to get better.” He’ll have to if he hopes to stave off the other four contenders at the position.

Finley’s chief competition may be Calzada, who transferred from Texas A&M back in January. Calzada was targeted by Austin Davis shortly after Davis took over as offensive coordinator, and he stuck with Auburn even after Davis’ sudden resignation in late January. Calzada provides Auburn with another experienced option at the position after he started 10 games for Texas A&M last season. Calzada, like Finley, fits the mold of what Harsin looks for physically in a quarterback — a big-bodied pocket-passer with a bigger arm to run a pro-style system. At Texas A&M last season, Calzada completed 56.1 percent of his passes for 2,185 yards, 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions, with his best performance coming in the Aggies’ upset of Alabama. Against the Tide, he threw for a career-high 285 yards and three scores while completing 67.7 percent of his passes.

Though the veterans are the two likely front-runners for the role of QB1, Auburn ha a trio of inexperienced quarterbacks who could make thinks more interesting this offseason. Dematrius Davis didn’t see the field last season, redshirting after signing with Auburn prior to Harsin taking over the program in December 2020. One of the most decorated quarterbacks in Texas high school history, Davis is a former four-star prospect and a dual-threat option who brings some gamesmanship and a different skillset to the position. He isn’t of the same mold as Harsin’s typical quarterbacks, but his development this offseason under Harsin and Kiesau is something to monitor.

Ashford, meanwhile, is an Alabama native and a dual-threat quarterback with more of a prototypical build at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds. He did not see the field in two seasons at Oregon before transferring to Auburn this spring, but the former Hoover product was the top quarterback prospect in the state two years ago.

Then there’s Geriner, the four-star freshman who enrolled in classes this spring. He was the first high school prospect to commit to Auburn after Harsin took over, and he’s someone Harsin has closely tracked over the last 14-plus months. A 6-foot-3, 206-pounder out of Savannah, Ga., Geriner passed for 3,377 yards and 36 touchdowns while completing nearly 70 percent of his passes as a senior, when he led his team to a Georgia state championship. He finished his high school career with more than 7,100 passing yards and 71 touchdowns.

His status as a true freshman could make it difficult for him to unseat some of Auburn’s other options, all of whom have at least experienced a season at the college level — even if Davis and Ashford have yet to see the field. Never say never, though. After all, the last quarterback to win an offseason competition for the starting job at Auburn was a true freshman, too.

Up next: Running backs.

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