Is Alabama preparing to face multiple Auburn quarterbacks?

With the Tide’s 56-0 defeat of Eastern Illinois behind it, its focus has now shifted to preparing for a 5-6 Auburn team with nothing to lose on Saturday, as well as the three quarterbacks who have started throughout the season.

The Tigers secured Oklahoma transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold over the offseason, someone who many Alabama players and fans may remember from last season. However, after starting the season off with a 3-4 record, Auburn benched him.

Senior quarterback Ashton Daniels got the start in the Tigers’ eighth game against Arkansas and led them to a win, although it was mainly a result of Auburn’s stifling rush attack, as Daniels only threw for 77 yards.

After losing the following two games, it was announced that freshman quarterback and former 5-star Deuce Knight would get the start in Auburn’s game against Mercer on Saturday. Knight flashed, showing huge potential. He threw for 239 yards, while also acquiring 162 yards on the ground and recording six total touchdowns in the Tigers’ 62-17 demolition of Mercer.

With the Tide now having film on all three quarterbacks, Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack spoke on Monday about what he expects to see from Auburn’s quarterbacks on Saturday.

“I think Ashton has done a really nice job,” Wommack said. “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. And really, every quarterback does. I wouldn’t say that they are drastically different, no matter what quarterback comes in the game plan, and so sometimes you get a throwing quarterback or a runner, or vice versa, whatever. They’re relatively similar in what they’re doing. So, we will anticipate the potential that we might see two or maybe three of them. But certainly from our standpoint, I don’t think it’s really going to change how we see them and how we view them from a game plan standpoint.”

Wommack also spoke on the challenges of facing multiple quarterbacks and how the Tide can stop them.

“You certainly want to identify each of them, and are there things that one of them does that the other one does not?” Wommack said. “I thought Deuce had a really good game the other day, there’s things maybe in the passing game that a young quarterback, they’re not going to go as farther down in some of the schematics that they’re doing there. But at the same time, he did a really nice job of pulling the ball down, I mean, he ran all over the field there. When he got out in open field, he was able to create the big explosive plays, and I think rush for four touchdowns, something like that. But for us, when you look at it structurally, I think they’re doing the same thing. I think they have an identity of what they do and how they do it, and I don’t think that changes with one quarterback to the next, but you certainly want to be mindful of what each quarterback does well. And like anything, you try to identify those things, and you try to make a play left-handed, or in Ashton’s case, right-handed.”

The Crimson Tide has struggled to stop mobile quarterbacks for a while, but has done much better than it did last season. So, it will be an interesting test for the Tide, as it faces three different quarterbacks who all have lethal mobility.