Auburn's Spring Game Raises More Questions Than Answers for Tigers' QB Battle

AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn built a reputation and won a national title as an assistant and an SEC title as a head coach based on his high-octane offense that has worked at every stop over the last decade—regardless of the style of quarterback.

That reputation is on the verge of being reversed after last year's struggles that saw Malzahn swing and miss by naming Jeremy Johnson his starting quarterback after spring practice and with an offense that finished 10th in the SEC in total offense (370 yards per game) and 11th in yards per play (5.39).

Saturday's spring game was an indication that the slide could continue, and it raised more questions than answers in the three-man battle for the top spot on the depth chart at quarterback.

Johnson completed just six of 13 passes for 35 yards and an eight-yard touchdown to Roc Thomas. Junior college transfer John Franklin III did complete seven of 11 passes but for only 61 yards—40 of which came on a touchdown pass to Marcus Davis that somehow made it through the arms of two waiting defenders.

Redshirt sophomore Sean White showed the most touch and completed eight of 14 passes for 125 yards. But he fumbled once in the red zone and had a surefire interception dropped by T.J. Davis.

"The big negative for me was when our quarterbacks who have had the reps with the first-team running backs put the ball on the ground on the zone read," Malzahn said. "That was probably the biggest negative from an offensive standpoint all day."

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The offense featured an abundance of bubble screens and timing routes, with very few shots deep to receivers. 

"We were pretty vanilla offensively," Malzahn said. "That was by design."

That's OK in spring games, since the last thing a coach wants to do is give away too much of the playbook to early-season opponents—the first of which is national runner-up Clemson. 

But Auburn's biggest issue last year was a vanilla, predictable offense; and Saturday's spring game did nothing to calm the fears of the Auburn Family that 2015 was the aberration, not the start of a trend.

What's even more concerning than the lack of a deep passing threat is that, even in a vanilla offense, Auburn went 1-of-22 combined on third downs on the afternoon.

Even vanilla offenses need to do better than that, whether it's in a real game, spring game, scrimmage or video game. The primary goal for Auburn moving forward in the offseason is to create some sort explosiveness.

"The fluidity of the offense (is something we need to work on)," White said. "We have to put more touchdowns on the board. I know it was a shortened game, but we have to put more touchdowns up and get the offense rolling to be back where Coach Malzahn wants it."

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Somebody needs to step up at quarterback to create the explosiveness that Auburn needs.

Can any of the quarterbacks on the roster stretch the field deep to take pressure off running back Jovon Robinson?

Can Franklin become consistent enough to become a weapon as a dual-threat quarterback in a more multidimensional offense that mirrors the one that Nick Marshall ran when he led Auburn to the 2013 SEC title?

Can Auburn protect the football when it matters most?

All of those questions remain unanswered, due in part to the vanilla game plan (which is OK) but mostly due to the inability of the quarterbacks to consistently stretch the field when shots were called and the inability to move the chains (which are not OK).

What Auburn showed off to the 45,723 fans at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday and many more watching on the SEC Network was an offense that was pretty much identical to the one that led to the 7-6 season in 2015.

Auburn's quarterback situation is murky, and it got even murkier in the spring game. 

Quotes were obtained firsthand, unless otherwise noted. Statistics are courtesy of CFBStats.com, unless otherwise noted, and recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.