Freshman orientation: Auburn’s Bo Nix the latest in trend of true freshman starting quarterbacks
QB Country founder David Morris provided insights in a recent piece by Tom Green/AL.com on the increasing number of true freshman quarterbacks starting for Power 5 programs, including Auburn’s Bo Nix. QB Country trainee Sam Howell (UNC) is another true freshman to earn the starting nod this season. The following are excerpts from the article. For the full story, click here.
No, what Nix is doing isn’t typical, but he is the latest in a growing trend of true freshman quarterbacks across the country to earn starting jobs and become the face of their respective programs.
“Where we are now is very interesting,” said David Morris, a former Ole Miss quarterback and the founder of QB Country in Mobile. “Again, maybe more intriguing because coaches — kind of like most other positions, if he’s the best player and he gives you the best chance to win, it doesn’t matter if he’s inexperienced at that level. At some point, you just play the best guy. So, I think it’s becoming more common for coaches.
“I know even for big, big hotshot recruits, back then they didn’t start as true freshmen right off the bat, necessarily…. They just didn’t do it back then.”
“High school coaching is more sophisticated in the passing game than it’s ever been, and there’s a lot of crossover between offense in college and high school, and even in the pros now,” Morris said. “I think that sets it up…. You combine those two things, and what you have is you have guys that are going to be better above the neck, more confident and really understand football more than they used to. Then you’re going to have guys that are more mechanically sound and are more aesthetically — they’re closer aesthetically to looking the way a quarterback should look, and it used to not happen this early.”