Auburn Football: 5 takeaways from Tigers’ 2017 regular season

5. Recruiting goes beyond incoming freshman

Auburn has done a fine job of recruiting incoming freshman under Gus Malzahn. There’s no doubt he’s put together some star-studded classes on both sides of the ball. Auburn is currently ranked ninth overall and third in the SEC, per 247sports. However, one place the Tigers have benefited more than any other is recruiting transfers at the quarterback position.

When Malzahn was just a lowly offensive coordinator, the Tigers won their national title with multi-transfer Cam Newton, now the Carolina Panthers’ star player. Then, when Gus returned to be head coach, he transferred in cornerback Nick Marshall from Georgia and turned him into a national title runner-up quarterback in Malzahn’s spread-to-run offense.

This offseason, he talked Jarrett Stidham into transferring from Baylor. Stidham started three games at Baylor before transferring and sitting out his sophomore season. The former five-star prospect then arrived at Auburn as another high-profile transfer quarterback for Malzahn’s offense. Stidham threw for 2,800 passing yards and 17 touchdowns adding another four touchdowns on the ground. The true beauty of Stidham was his lack of turnovers, only throwing four interceptions on 327 attempts.

Malzahn has won a national title with a transfer quarterback and played for another in a short time in Auburn, Ala. It remains to be seen the true pinnacle that Stidham can rise to as he was only a sophomore in 2017.