Auburn Chooses Marshall As QB1
Auburn announced Saturday that junior-college transfer Nick Marshall won the starting quarterback position. Credit: Todd Van Emst, Auburn Athletics
Auburn coach Gus Malzahn has made his call on which quarterback he will hitch his wagon to in 2013: junior-college transfer Nick Marshall.
Malzahn made the official decision after conferring with offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee on Saturday.
Marshall’s assent up the depth chart took place in a matter of weeks. He did enroll in school until the summer, meaning he missed spring camp.
It didn’t take him long to make up whatever head start incumbents Kiehl Frazier and Jonathan Wallace had. Earlier this week, Malzahn announced that Frazier had moved to safety and that Marshall would split reps on the first-team offense with true freshman Jeremy Johnson.
Saturday, Marshall officially beat out Johnson and Wallace for the job.
There is no word on who will back up Marshall. Johnson was in the competition until the end, but Malzahn and the coaching staff might prefer to keep him off the field and redshirt him this year barring emergency situations. That would make Wallace the obvious backup.
Critics of Marshall will point out that he threw 20 INTs in junior college last season.
Media members have already started to compare Marshall to Auburn’s last junior-college transfer quarterback – Cam Newton. Those only increase when looking at the starts of their collegiate careers. Marshall, like Newton, started at an SEC school – Marshall at Georgia, Newton at Florida – before legal troubles ended his stay.
Make no mistake: Marshall was not nearly as heralded, did not have the same pedigree – he played DB at Georgia while Newton played QB at Florida – and doesn’t have the same skill set. Marshall is shiftier and speedier as a runner.
“He’s a blazing guy,” TE C.J. Uzomah told al.com’s Joel Erickson. “It’s something kind of special.”
Marshall doesn’t, however possess the all-important lower-the-shoulders ability that made Newton money in third-down situations.
Comparing Marshall to Newton is unfair and unrealistic. The better comparison might be to Ole Miss QB Bo Wallace, who made a spectacular splash in his own right for the Rebels last season.
Like Marshall, Wallace came in from a junior college. He also played in an up-tempo offense under Hugh Freeze, a coaching friend of Malzahn’s.
If Auburn can get out of Marshall what Ole Miss received from Wallace a year ago, Malzahn and the Tigers should be pleased.