New Auburn starting quarterback Jeremy Johnson viewed as a strength of team

New Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp is certainly a hot topic at SEC Football Media Days. His coaches and teammates have a lot of confidence in him He’s earned that. “It made me humble”. “The people who did, won’t. We’ve got a lot of weapons around me, and I feel comfortable”.

“His approach, his energy and his enthusiasm have been great”, Malzahn said.

Brandon Marcello asks about Auburn not winning in Baton Rouge since 1999 and whether the game being a day game is a help.

After a 5-0 start last season, Auburn stumbled to an 8-5 overall finish. It likely will improve. “We now know that we have a really good opportunity to become a premier defense, and we’re ready to do that”. If the quarterback is special? He’s not the athlete Nick Marshall was, but Johnson is the better quarterback of the two. But what if it isn’t? We’ll see how Alabama diehards respond on Wednesday.

The biggest storyline for the Tigers has been Johnson’s first season as the team’s starting quarterback. And as the Razorbacks revealed themselves through the season to be far stingier than expected-they shut out LSU and Ole Miss in consecutive weeks in November-Johnson’s performance kept looking better. “He’s a big, athletic guy, so he will allow us to call all of our offense”. “Times are changing, and that seemed an appropriate both song title and lyric, one that I’ve heard many times by the way”. He has a better arm than Marshall and throws a prettier ball. But coach Gus Malzahn wanted everyone to remember that he can be a solid threat to run as well.

“We have confidence in in all three of them”, Malzahn said.

“Nick Marshall was one of the better zone read quarterbacks in recent history”. Jeremy has the ability. But when we asked him what he is most impressed with, he said freshman Kerryon Johnson.

Spending most of last season on the sideline was a “humbling experience”, according to Johnson, who is expected to direct a similar offense to what Marshall engineered the past two years. But Johnson would like to stop everyone right there. “As you can imagine”, Sankey said, “this is a bit of a moment for me”.

More than one observer has mentioned Johnson’s arm is National Football League quality. He ran this offense in high school, too.

Mason’s reply: “Well, 2014’s got nothing to do with 2015, first of all”.

The question is can he handle the everydayness of playing quarterback in the SEC?

The Tigers defense will be bolstered by the additions of Muschamp, Travaris Robinson and Lance Thompson. In 13 games over two seasons, he has completed 73.1 percent of his passes. “I feel like the LSU game is going to define our year, define what we have on our team”, Johnson said.

Johnson insists he’s tuning out all that talk. Or it could be when Johnson proves himself worthy of the off-season excitement. He’s waited two years to be the man for the Tigers.

“We hired, in my opinion, the best defensive mind in all of football, not just college football”, Malzahn said. Instead, Johnson remained patient.

Malzahn started recruiting Johnson when the player was a ninth-grader 45 minutes from Auburn in Montgomery, Alabama. So in reality, SEC Media Days is probably the easiest thing Johnson will have to do this season.