Practice Observations: Who's up first at QB for Auburn vs. Mercer?
It's looking like Deuce Knight time, as Auburn plans to play the 5-star freshman with Ashton Daniels sitting out to preserve his redshirt.
AUBURN — It might be impossible to focus on the present with Auburn football.
Auburn is 4-6 with an interim head coach in DJ Durkin, needing to win out to make a bowl game. The search for the next head coach has dominated — and will continue to dominate — the news cycle around the Tigers for the month of November.
Next week, Auburn will take on Alabama. The Iron Bowl is a game that matters more than any other, no matter the records. It will be an Iron Bowl in Jordan-Hare Stadium, which always ramps up the intrigue. It will also be a night Iron Bowl for the first time since 2007, a product of the new SEC contract with ESPN and ABC.
A win for Auburn could go beyond bragging rights. Not only could it give the Tigers a shot at a winning record for the first time in five years, it could knock their biggest rival out of the SEC Championship Game and, potentially, the College Football Playoff.
But first things first: A home game against Mercer on Saturday. And don’t overlook the Bears, just because they’re a member of the FCS.
“Regardless of what’s going on in the future, we’re in the present,” edge rusher Chris Murray said Tuesday after practice. “We’re locked in on what’s going on now. Mercer’s a good team. Any underdog is gonna want to come in and beat the big dog. We’ve just to lock in this week and get dialed into detail.”
There are few college football teams in the country playing with more confidence right now than Mercer. The Bears have won nine straight games, averaging 41.6 points per contest overall and 56.5 points per game across the last four alone. They average more yards per game than anyone in the FCS and are No. 3 in yards per play.
According to Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings of every college football team, Mercer is No. 110 overall. By comparison, Ball State — Auburn’s Week 2 opponent — is No. 166. South Alabama, which Auburn beat by just two scores in Week 3, is No. 121.
There should be no looking ahead for Auburn. Besides, remember what happened the week right before its last home Iron Bowl? New Mexico State 31, Auburn 10.
“I feel like we made that mistake my first year here, when we played New Mexico State,” offensive tackle Izavion “Too Tall” Miller said. “Can’t do that again. I’m locked in. I’m watching film. They’ve got like a pretty high sack number at defensive end. So they’re not like pushovers. They’re pretty good guys, so I’m locked in.”
Auburn knows that the best way to get ready for the Iron Bowl is to finally put together a complete game together, no matter the conference of the opponent.
“To be real, we’re not worried about what’s happening next week,” linebacker Xavier Atkins said. “We’re worried about going out there and play a complete football game in all three phases — special teams, defense and offense just coming together and playing together for once.”
Here’s everything we’ve seen and heard about Auburn football over the last two days — including the latest on a shifting quarterback situation — as the Tigers prepare for one final home game before the all-important Iron Bowl next Saturday in Jordan-Hare.
What we saw and heard during Tuesday’s practice
Deuce Knight was the first quarterback up during the 11-on-11 “Tiger Ball” drill during practice Tuesday, working with the first-team offense. His first pass was a high ball to Cam Coleman against a heavy blitz, but he bounced back by hitting a couple of nice RPO throws to Malcolm Simmons and Coleman to walk down the field. Jeremiah Cobb had a couple of nice runs during this period, and Knight pulled the ball down for a heads-up scramble as well.
Jackson Arnold was the second quarterback up in Tiger Ball. He threw a quick slant to Bryce Cain and an RPO pass into the flat for Ryan Ghea. There was also an incompletion forced by Raion Strader on a pass to Cam’Ron King. The running back in that drill was Justin Jones, who got a handoff. The final play of the drill was a throwaway under pressure.
In case you didn’t hear Monday, Ashton Daniels will not play Saturday against Mercer. He has only played in three games this year, meaning he can play one more in the regular season and still preserve a redshirt. Auburn will sit its current QB1 for that game and have him available for Alabama. Durkin: “I think it’s clearly the right thing to do.”
Knight and Arnold went back-and-forth on who was up first in the other drills during Tuesday’s viewing window, which lines up with the approach Durkin said the team would take for Mercer. Arnold went up first with the receivers going against the defensive backs, where he had a couple of completions before a pick by Jahquez Robinson. On the next play, Arnold’s deep ball had to get broken up by Simmons before Kayin Lee intercepted it. Knight then completed four straight passes to a variety of receivers at the end of the viewing period.
The injury report is pretty significant for this one — mostly negative, but one positive development for the Tigers towards the end of the regular season: