Ashford, Geriner or Thorne? Position battles to monitor as Auburn football prepares for fall

Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze is closing in on his first fall camp on the Plains.

The official date for the start of preseason practices has not yet been released, but with the 2023 season scheduled to begin at home in Jordan-Hare Stadium against UMass on Sept. 2, it's safe to assume the Tigers will begin preparing for the upcoming campaign within the next week or two.

With the roster overhauled this offseason, Auburn fans will have to put in some extra work to memorize all of the new faces on the team, and the coaching staff will have about a month to establish pecking orders at positions that experienced significant turnover.

Here are a few key position battles to keep an eye on with the Freeze era set to begin in less than 40 days.

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Quarterback

Until Freeze names a starter for Auburn's game versus the Minutemen, the conversation is always going to start at quarterback.

Freeze shed some light on a timeline for the position battle at SEC Media Days earlier this month, noting that it'll start as a three-way competition between redshirt freshman Holden Geriner, incumbent starter Robby Ashford and Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne. Freeze would then like to trim it to a two-horse race 10 days into preseason practice.

"I can’t watch them throw (yet), so I haven’t seen," Freeze said when asked about Thorne. "What I’ve been impressed with is his attention to detail, his desire to learn the systems, to be a leader, to have position group meetings. He definitely has those leadership qualities.

"One of the first questions he asked me: Could I get someone to get him a picture of everyone that works in the building and their name because he wants to know their name. ... But like I said, I haven’t coached him a single practice yet, so it would be unfair for me to even act like I knew where everybody stood at. But absolutely love what I’ve seen from him in the leadership world."

Offensive guard

Whoever wins the QB competition needs to be protected, and the five players on the starting offensive line charged with doing that haven't been fully established yet.

Transfers Gunner Britton (Western Kentucky), Avery Jones (East Carolina) and Dillon Wade (Tulsa) look to have locked up starting spots at right tackle, center and left tackle, respectively, but the big question is who will start at the two guard spots.

There's no shortage of options for the Tigers, who return a few notable interior offensive linemen in Tate Johnson, Kam Stutts and Jeremiah Wright; Stutts accompanied Freeze to Nashville for SEC Media Days. That trio is joined by a couple of newcomers that should be in contention for starting roles, too: Freshman Connor Lew and Tulsa transfer Jaden Muskrat.

"I think he’s a guy that’s played a lot of snaps that can swing from both inside to outside, if we need him in a pinch outside," Freeze said of Muskrat. "Obviously, (with) that room you’re trying to get nine to 10 deep in there that can play. And I felt like he improved us there, added great depth to us."

Wide receiver

After spring practice wrapped up with A-Day on April 8, the Tigers went out and added three transfer receivers in Ohio State's Caleb Burton III, Jackson State's Shane Hooks and North Texas' Jyaire Shorter. Burton appears to be a piece for the future, but Hooks and Shorter are poised to make instant impacts.

They'll be competing for reps on the outside with Cincinnati transfer Nick Mardner, who committed to Auburn in January, and returning sophomore Camden Brown, who posted 123 receiving yards and two touchdowns on nine catches in 2022.

"(Burton's) high school tape was pretty dang special and he’s a future (guy)," Freeze said. "The other guys are one-year, stop-gap guys that help improve our room, I think, in some way or another. But Burton’s a little different. Burton’s got four years left with us and I think he’s got skillsets that are really going to help us in the future."

Linebacker

With LSU transfer DeMario Tolan no longer on the team due to what Freeze described as "some personal family issues," the Tigers are down a player that could've been on the back end of their linebacker rotation. LBs coach Josh Aldridge has expressed his desire to have five or six linebackers he's confident in playing, but the order between Austin Keys, Larry Nixon III, Cam Riley and Wesley Steiner, among others, is still to be determined.

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football: Position battles to watch at preseason practices