Georgia Southern's starting quarterback will be making his collegiate debut against No. 12 Auburn.

The Eagles named redshirt-freshman Shai Werts as their starter on Monday, ending a three-way competition with junior-college transfer Kado Brown and junior LaBaron Anthony.



"I think Shai certainly came in and took the majority amount of snaps with the ones both in spring practice and in camp and I thought he did a great job," Georgia Southern coach Tyson Summers said. "I think that you see him have a very clear understanding of what we want do on offense. I think you see him have a very clear understanding of what he's got to work on to get better at and I think that he's done a tremendous job from a leadership standpoint on the field and in the classroom and in the meeting room."

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Werts will be the first freshman to start a season opener for GSU since Tracy Ham in 1983.

The Clinton, South Carolina native was ranked the No. 47 dual threat quarterback in the country by 247Sports and had more than 6,000 total yards and 73 touchdowns in his high school career.

"Shai is a kid that wants to be a good football player, he wants to win," GSU offensive coordinator Bryan Cook said. "He is the first guy - you get done with practice and it's a race to see who can get to the film first to see what happened on a particular play and that's what you want from a quarterback. You want a guy who is a student to the game. He leaves notes around from when he's watching film and so that's good to see. He's diligent. He tries to take advantage of every rep."

Georgia Southern is a five-touchdown underdog at Auburn at 6:30 p.m. CT on Sept. 2 on SEC Network.