It was 2004 and Jason Campbell was entrenched as the Auburn starting quarterback with lefty Brandon Cox waiting in the wings. Al Borges was running the show on that side of the ball for the Tigers and everything was working. Over a four-year span, Auburn would go 41-9 and win at least nine games in every season. Since that stretch, the Tigers have won nine or more games just four times in the last 20 years. Once with Cam Newton, once with Nick Marshall, once with Jarrett Stidham and once with Bo Nix. That’s it.
Obviously, there are a lot of factors that have gone into that with offensive line recruiting being one of the biggest, but I would argue that the lack of a plan recruiting the quarterback position has been at the top of the list.
While Gus Malzahn did some good things as Auburn’s offensive coordinator and later head coach, recruiting the quarterback position was not one of them. The Tigers brought in some talented guys along the way, but most just weren’t the right fit with what Malzahn wanted to do on offense or what the talent was recruited to play…