Auburn flips the script on Alabama just days before the Iron Bowl with a head-scratching decision at quarterback
Alabama has another wrinkle to prepare for in the Iron Bowl.
Somehow, some way, we have reached the end of the regular season in college football. And with that comes rivalry week. A week where the matchup between the teams up north and the teams down south mirrors each other in terms of intensity.
But the Iron Bowl is unlike any other game. Sure, the Auburn Tigers are in transition after firing head coach Hugh Freeze, but the team has a newfound emphasis under interim HC DJ Durkin.
And last week, Auburn unveiled its new QB. But against the Alabama Crimson Tide, that won’t be the case.
Auburn is going back to Ashton Daniels for Iron Bowl
Durkin confirmed that Daniels would be returning to the starting lineup despite what the team saw last week from Deuce Knight. Daniels and the Tigers decided against playing in last week’s game vs. Mercer in an effort to preserve Daniels’ redshirt.
But throwing him back into the fire after only playing scout team quarterback in practice seems like an odd decision on the part of Auburn, but one I’m sure that Alabama won’t be complaining about.
“I think Ashton has done a really nice job,” Alabama DC Kane Wommack said during his Monday presser via the Alabama YouTube channel. “I think they’ve come up with a game plan that he can operate very efficiently in. I thought he did a really good job against Vanderbilt, taking care of the football, putting the ball in the direction, working through his progressions properly, and then certainly he does things from the run game that cause challenges and issues for you.”
Wommack knows as well as his players that they have to get after Daniels on Saturday. You know why they say that there is no experience like in-game experience for a quarterback? Because even if Daniels is out there on the scout team, there is nothing on the line.
He likely has no fear of getting hit, and he damn sure doesn’t have the entire state of Alabama either rooting for him or hoping he plays horribly in what is easily the biggest game of his career. So pressuring the quarterback and making him think everything is happening faster than it really is will be key for Alabama.
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