Trotter fights for back-up QB role
Trotter still fighting for the top QB spot
There are worse things in life than fighting for the backup quarterback job.
That’s the mindset Barrett Trotter has brought into his third fall camp at Auburn, the third consecutive camp in which Trotter is on the outside looking in at the starting position.
“You’re going to work hard, no matter if you’re first, second or third,” Trotter said. “So for me, it really doesn’t change anything.”
An Al Borges recruit, Trotter didn’t play during his first season at Auburn, though former coach Tommy Tuberville flirted with the idea momentarily while Kodi Burns and Chris Todd failed to bring much efficiency to the position.
With a wide open competition set for his redshirt freshman season, and an entirely new staff evaluating the talent on hand, Trotter had as good of a shot as anyone to seize the starting job.
His time in the competition lasted just 13 practices. He tore his ACL in the practice before the 2009 A-Day game, rendering the entire season a wash. Trotter started throwing with the rest of his teammates near the end of the 2009 season and was completely healthy for spring practice. Like the other three returning quarterbacks, though, Trotter lost the spring battle to upstart transfer Cameron Newton.
His spirits, though, remain buoyed.
“It’s good to get out of summer workouts and get back having the ball in your hands,” he said. “For me coming back off an injury, spring was good, and then just getting back into it now, it’s good to get back to completely normal.
“Getting back into the swing of things is fun.”
Despite Newton’s rise, Trotter had a strong spring. He was arguably the best quarterback at this year’s A-Day game, throwing for 154 yards and two touchdowns.
“He’s a great competitor,” offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said. “He’s one of our more accurate guys. He throws a very catchable ball. As far as our timing passing game, he does a very solid job.”
Tigers ranked
Auburn won’t have to win its first five games just to get a number next to its name this season.
The Tigers came in at No. 23 in the USA Today preseason coaches poll. They were one of six SEC teams to crack the top 25, including No. 3 Florida and overwhelming No. 1 Alabama.
The defending national champions received 55 of 59 first-place votes to carry a significant voter points lead over No. 2 Ohio State.
Auburn coach Gene Chizik is not one of the coaches who vote. The SEC is represented by Florida’s Urban Meyer, Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, Arkansas’ Bobby Petrino, Alabama’s Nick Saban and South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier. Former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville also has a vote.
Auburn has been ranked heading into in seven of the last eight seasons. The lone exception was last year, when the Tigers didn’t crack the top 25 until Week 6 after starting the season 5-0. Auburn peaked at No. 17 in the Associated Press poll and finished just outside the top 25 to end the season.
Pierre-Louis on the mend
Oft-maligned wide receiver Philip Pierre-Louis is setting a record for fastest rehab from an ACL injury, wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor said.
Pierre-Louis hurt his knee during Auburn’s second scrimmage of the spring. Wearing a brace on the injured knee, Pierre-Louis has appeared to be back to speed during Auburn’s first three weeks of practice.
Pierre-Louis tore his ACL on the first play of his Auburn career in 2008. It’s been an uphill climb ever since, as he found himself in the Taylor’s and Chizik’s doghouse throughout the 2009 season and only saw the field sporadically on punt returns.
Taylor said the former problem child has turned a corner.
“For me, he’s really shown that he wants to be here and has done things right, because we set a standard and I didn’t know if he could live up to it when he first started,” Taylor said. “If you had asked me last year, could he live up to that standard, if I was a betting man, I would have lost, because I would have said no.”
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