Jarrett Stidham, quarterback, Auburn
After a promising freshman year at Baylor was cut short by injury, Stidham left the scandal-ridden program in the summer of 2016. He spent last season at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, taking a year off from football before transferring to Auburn ahead of the 2017 campaign.
Now he’s expected by most to beat out Sean White for the starting job in Gus Malzahn’s offense, one that should fit his skills perfectly.
During his freshman year at Baylor, Stidham completed 68.8 percent of his passes, averaged 11.6 yards per attempt throwing 12 touchdowns and just two interceptions. A former Baylor coach called him “a taller Drew Brees” recently, indicating just how highly he’s thought of.
“We used to sit in our defensive meeting room at Baylor and be like ‘OK, we’ve got one right here. We’ve got something special at quarterback,'” Chris Dishman said, via Matt Zenitz of AL.com. “You knew he was going to a special-type player, so him being successful at Auburn doesn’t surprise me at all.”
The Tigers are going to try to run the ball plenty. But Malzahn has been waiting for a passer of Stidham’s caliber for a few years. He won’t have him on a leash. Instead, he’ll be eager to unleash the aerial assault he’s been unable to feature in recent years because of a lack of talent.
This bodes well for Stidham to have a huge season at Auburn in 2017.