Quarterback Battle at Auburn: Here We Go Again?

Bring up last season to an Auburn fan, and you won't like the reaction.

Bring up the quarterback situation, and you might want to duck.

Last season was bad enough for Auburn fans going 5-7 and missing a bowl game, but the situation they had at quarterback was even worse.

Quickly, think back a year ago.

A new offensive coordinator was coming into Auburn who was supposedly a genius at running a spread offensive attack.

You had fleet-footed Kodi Burns who was the next Dameyune Craig. You had the system quarterback Chris Todd from Texas Tech...bring back bad memories?

Okay, so enter a new coaching staff and new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who has become extremely well known for his diverse spread offense.

Okay, but it's a different spread offense so it's all good, I think.

Here's the potential problem though: Auburn now has a new coaching staff that seems to be on the same page with their philosophy, unlike last year, and an offensive coordinator who has actually coached in an SEC championship game, but there is one thing that hasn't changed—who is battling it out at quarterback.

Through two weeks of practice and a full scale scrimmage, none of the three quarterbacks (Chris Todd still out resting his repaired shoulder) splitting reps have distinguished themselves.

Now you might say, "Well, that means it's a good battle going on with some real competition." That may be, but Auburn fans heard far too much of that last season.

They heard how close the competition was between Kodi Burns and Chris Todd, and how then offensive coordinator Tony Franklin couldn't choose because it was like a "heavyweight bout." Heavyweight bout? Not exactly.

And so far, this quarterback battle doesn't seem any different than last season.

Kodi is still in the mix, and there are two new quarterbacks fighting it out as well: junior Neil Caudle and freshman Barrett Trotter. Caudle is a guy who has had plenty of chances to prove himself, and maybe a new staff is what he needs to take the next step.

We'll see. Trotter is the popular newcomer who redshirted last season, but seems to be the fan favorite.

But so far not one of them has done anything above and beyond to push ahead in this race, and if last year is any indication, that's not a good thing. It probably means all three are playing closer to average than to great.

With Auburn's annual A-Day game scheduled for 13 days from now, there seems little hope that a quarterback separates himself by then either.

Head coach Gene Chizik had this to say after Saturday's scrimmage.

"I don't think we're there yet," Chizik said. "I don't know there will be separation in seven more practices, I really don't. Of course we're going to take it day-by-day. Right now they're kind of all clumped in there together and they're all doing some nice things."

So for most Auburn fans' senses of sanity, the quicker this battle narrows down to one or two, and the quicker a quarterback steps up to take the reigns, the quicker those fans can put last year's debacle behind them and rally around a new leader.

For Chizik and Malzahn though, as shown by them making their quarterbacks fair game in their scrimmage Saturday, they will do whatever it takes to create separation, and separation will be the hot word on the Plains until this competition is over.