Freshman quarterback Joey Gatewood has entered the transfer portal and will leave Auburn football. Here are five possible destinations for Gatewood.
In a surprise, yet understandable, move, freshman quarterback Joey Gatewood has left the Auburn football program to enter the transfer portal.
Since he’s appeared in seven games this season, Gatewood cannot redshirt, but will just be a sophomore next season. He was used mostly in sub-packages — short-yardage and goal-line — and in blowout victories for the Tigers.
According to head coach Gus Malzahn, Gatewood left because he wanted to be a starting quarterback. He saw his role diminish on The Plains as Malzahn and his staff were sticking with five-star true freshman Bo Nix after he beat out Gatewood for the starting job this summer.
Because of this, Gatewood entered the portal.
Entering the portal is tricky; you have to consider teams that have an obvious need at quarterback. Most importantly, there’s no guarantee that once you are on campus you’ll win the job.
There will be no shortage of suitors for Gatewood’s services next season. Coming out of high school, he had 33 offers from FBS programs 25 of those were Power Five programs. A four-star recruit from Jacksonville, Fla., Gatewood was the third-rated dual-threat quarterback in 2018 behind Justin Fields (Ohio State) and Dorian Thompson-Robinson (UCLA). Rivals also had him as the 15th-rated player from the state of Florida in 2018 behind the likes of Asante Samuel (Florida State), Al Blades (Miami), Xavier Thomas (Clemson) and Patrick Surtain (Alabama).
With 33 offers out of high school, he’ll get a lot of phone calls. Here are the most likely landing spots.