April 9, 2018
By Greg Ostendorf
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" Coming off a season in which Jarrett Stidham threw for 3,158 yards and 18 touchdowns, completed an SEC-best 66.5 percent of his passes and led the Tigers within one game of the College Football Playoff, the Auburn quarterback wanted nothing more than to build on that performance this spring.
However, getting healthy took priority.
Stidham, who partially tore his labrum in his non-throwing shoulder during a Week 4 win at Missouri last season, waited until after the season to have surgery on his shoulder, and as a result, he watched as backup quarterbacks Malik Willis and Joey Gatewood split the majority of the snaps with the first-team offense this spring.
On Saturday, the most notable returning player on Auburn's roster was limited to throwing a few passes in a 7-on-7 format that kicked off A-Day.
"It's a bummer because as a competitor, you want to be out there with your team and doing all you can to help those guys," Stidham said. "But it's also been good to kind of sit back and see everything from a coach's perspective. Now that I know everything we're doing on offense and I know what we're trying to do, I'm able to have more of an overlook of it rather than just doing my job and trying to get the ball to different guys. Now I see everything as a whole."
Picture Stidham or Coach Stidham standing on the sideline, wearing his jersey (no pads) with a backwards hat and headset on. He was standing with the other offensive coaches, throwing up hand signals and calling out plays to the quarterbacks between plays.
Coach @Jarrett_Stidham? pic.twitter.com/sPkK52d7jJ
- Greg Ostendorf (@greg_ostendorf) April 7, 2018
It's been that way for the majority of spring as Stidham has stood next to head coach Gus Malzahn or offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey during practices and scrimmages in an attempt to do whatever he could to help the younger quarterbacks develop.
"He just gives us little tips on anything we do," Willis said. "He watches over us and just gives us anything that he can think of."
"From a coach's perspective, he did a great job ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" before he was throwing at all ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" he did a great job of being another coach on the field, especially with Joey," Lindsey said. "He would go with Joey and help with communication. I think all of those things helps continue his development as far as the offense goes and with the defenses we're seeing."
With Stidham out, there was an expected decline in the passing game Saturday. Both Willis and Gatewood struggled at times during the scrimmage portion of A-Day, but the scrimmage ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" while it's the only real look fans get of either quarterback during the spring ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" it's not indicative of the spring as a whole.
Plus, there is more to A-Day than just the final stats, especially for the quarterback position.
"I thought they did well," Stidham said. "We missed some throws down the field, but I think there were also some plays where the whistle blew them dead and they could've kept running. So I thought they did a good job commanding the offense and a good job with communication and everything like that. Overall, I thought they did a really good job."
When the team comes back for the summer, Coach Stidham will turn in the headset for a helmet and pads as he believes he will be full go by that point.
Sure, the rising junior might have missed valuable time with his receivers this spring. He might not have been able to take snaps and work with the new players on offense like he wanted to. But Malzahn is confident his quarterback won't miss a beat when he does return to full strength.
"From a Jarrett Stidham standpoint, you'd like to have him out there," Malzahn said. "But the positive is those two other guys got quality experience, and that will help us in the fall.
"And then the thing about with Jarrett, even though he's one year with us in this league, he played pretty well. And he does have experience. He's kind of been from the other perspective, seeing things from a different standpoint, and I think that will help him. So really, I see the quarterback deal as being a positive as far as big picture."
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @greg_ostendorf