Auburn offense growing up 'every practice, every game'

Auburn offense growing up 'every practice, every game'Auburn offense growing up 'every practice, every game'

Oct. 4, 2016

By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com

AUBURN, Ala. - A whopping 86.3 percent of Auburn's offense is being delivered from freshman and sophomores, and quarterback Sean White says all those young guys can grow even more.

"I think that's definitely possible because all the guys who are young and contributing are really hard workers," White says. "Nobody is complacent. No freshman is like, 'Man, I'm making plays and I don't need to come to practice or whatever.' Everyone is coming to work and everyone is playing with a chip on his shoulder. That's the best thing to see."

Auburn will take its young offense on the road for the first time this season when it plays at Mississippi State at 11 a.m. Saturday. What the fans there will see is White, a redshirt sophomore, leading the team in passing; Kerryon Johnson, a true sophomore, leading in rushing; and a young receiving corps that is coming on fast.

Seven of Auburn's top eight rushers are either freshmen or sophomores. Ten of the top 12 receivers are underclassmen as well.

White say the receivers, the running backs, the quarterbacks are gaining experience.

"Every practice is just more repetitions. Every practice. Every game," he said. "Every day that goes by, that gets better. A huge part to the success of a quarterback and receivers is the chemistry. The more reps you get, the better."

And White says that the offense is gaining confidence.

"It's definitely higher," White said. It's up to us that we have to come to play, execute, and play hard. It's good to know that we have the ability to, and it's just up to us to come to play."

Auburn beat then-nationally-ranked LSU 18-13 without a touchdown. Then Auburn beat Sun Belt-member Louisiana-Monroe 58-7 with eight touchdowns. Somewhere in there is a happy mix.

"The challenge is to find that consistency," White said. "We have to do that every week. You can't one week put up a bunch of points and then the next week you don't finish drives in the red zone. We need to bring it every week."



White has been consistent since the opener against Clemson, hitting 68 of 93 passes - a cool 73 percent - for 843 yards and five touchdowns.

"His completion percentage gets better each game," said Gus Malzahn. "He's been better throwing the football and I think you've seen him get more comfortable. Our players around him are getting more and more confident with him too. We're starting to settle in to who we are on offense."

"I think," White said, "I've done some good things, I think there are some things I could do better and work on."

White's first start as a college quarterback was against Mississippi State last season. The Bulldogs won 17-9. Now, a year older and wiser, White says things seem "a lot different."

"I have so much more experience under my belt playing in a lot of SEC games, playing in a lot of games," he said. "I think that'll help be as far as being more confident and comfortable going on the road in a tough environment. I think it'll help me."

White won at Kentucky last season and lost in four overtimes at Arkansas. He's ready for another road start.

"I wouldn't say fun, but I like the challenge of playing on the road," White said. "You go into another team's environment, it's a hostile environment - every environment is in the SEC - and it's a challenge to go in there and play well and steal a win in another team's territory, and that's a fun challenge for me.

"You love playing at home in front of your own fans, too, but it's something that motivates you when everybody is hating you."

Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine