Hugh Freeze shares expectations for Auburn's quarterback battle

As Hugh Freeze enters his first season as Auburn‘s head football coach, many have their eyes on the Tiger’s offseason quarterback battle this offseason. Auburn kicked off spring practice on Monday, and Freeze joined McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, speaking about his plan for his quarterback competition between Robby Ashford, TJ Finley, and Holden Geriner.

“We’re definitely going to rotate between TJ, and Robby, and Holden, but probably the first week I know we’re gonna rotate from drill to drill who goes with the one’s, who goes with the two’s,” Freeze said.

Ashford started the last nine games for the Tigers last season ending the year with 1,613 yards in the air with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions, along with 710 yards rushing and seven touchdowns on the ground. Ashford used his arm and legs to will the Tigers to three wins when he was under center, but Freeze claims that no quarterback in the competition has an upper hand on another.

“And truthfully there are no one’s and two’s right now, everybody’s on equal playing ground, but we’ll rotate to make sure they’re getting reps with different o-line’s and see how they function in week one,” Freeze said.

Finley may be the most comfortable quarterback in the battle, as he transferred to Auburn from LSU and has spent the last two seasons with the team. He won last year’s offseason quarterback competition under former head coach Bryan Harsin, but was replaced by Ashford after Week 3.

Geriner has the least experience out of the group. The redshirt freshman only saw action versus Missouri where he completed two passes for eight yards. He was the No. 14 ranked quarterback nationally in the 2022 class according to On3 Consensus, and a strong first week of spring practice could allow him to establish a solid foundation with Auburn’s new coaching staff.

“And then kind of our plan is after these three practices we break for spring break to kind of reconvene and put our heads together between Kent (Austin), Phillip (Montgomery), and myself and kind of see where we go from there with the remaining four weeks that we have,” Freeze said.

The Tiger’s spring game is April 8, and all eyes will be on who’s under center for Hugh Freeze from then until their opening game versus Massachusetts on September 2.