Auburn head football coach [autotag]Bryan Harsin[/autotag] elected to use both [autotag]T.J. Finley[/autotag] and [autotag]Robby Ashford[/autotag] to lead the offense in the Tigers’ 42-16 win over Mercer last Saturday.
Finley completed 9-of-14 passes for 112 yards, while Ashford was 4-of-7 for 100 yards. Both quarterbacks had a chance to separate themselves as well. Ashford recorded the team’s second-highest rushing total with 68 yards. Finley, though, would go on to throw two interceptions in an otherwise respectable performance.
Harsin shared his thoughts on the quarterback situation during Monday’s press conference. He says that using the rotation of Finley and Ashford was always in last week’s game plan.
“We knew that was going to happen. Not everybody else did,” Harsin said in a release. “But we knew that back and forth would happen… and we got a chance to keep Robby in there because we were winning the game.”
How does week one’s showing affect the game plan for Saturday’s game with San Jose State? Not at all, in Harsin’s eyes. According to this week’s depth chart, Finley is still considered to be the starter, but Harsin says that he expects Ashford to be thrown into the mix as well.
Will there be an even split? Or will one quarterback see more snaps than the other? Harsin partially alluded to that question as well. He was asked about his decision to use only Ashford following Finley’s second interception early in the 3rd quarter. To that, he says that Finley’s playing time in the San Jose State game will not be dictated by what happened last week and that he had another idea in mind.
“(Finley) had played well up to that point, and then he had the two turnovers… We wanted to get (Ashford) some more reps.”
Auburn welcomes San Jose State to Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. CT. The game can be seen on ESPNU.
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