Jeremy Johnson, Sean White, John Franklin III.JPG

Auburn quarterbacks Sean White (13), Jeremy Johnson (6) and John Franklin III (5) run through drills during spring practice Tuesday, March 8, 2016, at the Auburn practice facility in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

Auburn's quarterback competition will continue for "a little longer."

After 18 practices this month and 15 in spring practice, Sean White, Jeremy Johnson and John Franklin III are all still taking reps with the Tigers' first-team offense.

"I'm not ready to name a starting quarterback yet," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said following Saturday's practice. "There's still very good competition. Hopefully we'll know something in the near future, but not right now.

"It's too good a competition. We're going to let those guys compete for a little longer and see what happens."

Malzahn said the "plan" is still to narrow the field to two players before eventually naming a starter but Auburn is "not quite there yet" in eliminating anyone from the competition.

"It's not a bad thing," Malzahn said. "Once again, it's really good competition. You can tell the intensity, as it gets a little bit closer, gets different each day, which I think is good. But (having a two-man battle) would be ideal. Either that or be able to name a starter at some point in the near future."

Despite offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, who said there was "no hurry" in naming a starter, indicating Franklin, Johnson and White were not all on equal ground as of Thursday, Malzahn said there is no apparent order in the race for the job.

"If there was a pecking order, I'd say these two right here are battling out right now," Malzahn said. "I'm not ready to say that yet. Hopefully, like I said, in the near future we can do that. But the intensity, like I said, it's getting higher each day. That's usually when things become a little clear, but they're all three fighting for the job. I think that's a positive."

Lashlee compared Franklin, a heralded dual-threat junior college transfer, to a "true freshman" due to his lack of game experience compared to Johnson, who in three years under Malzahn and Lashlee is the quarterback with the longest tenure under their tutelage at the college level, and White.

Malzahn did not elaborate as to how Franklin's ability to compete with more experienced returning players impacts his standing in competition.

"They're all three rolling their sleeves up," Malzahn said. "They're competing. So John's right in the middle of that."

Malzahn not address whether he's committed to playing Johnson, who is set to graduate in Dec. and has one year of eligibility remaining, if he doesn't win the starting job.

"I'm not going to go into hypotheticals yet," Malzahn said. "I'm going to wait and we'll name starter and then we'll kind of go from there after that."

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The ongoing competition does not appear to be rooted in gamesmanship by Malzahn, who all off-season long started he hoped to name a starter "sooner rather than later" with he and Lashlee setting the end of fall camp as a goal. Camp ended Monday and Auburn has held four practices since, with another set for Sunday before an off day on Monday.

Malzahn said it is "definitely a positive" to name a starter before the season opener against Clemson on Sept. 3.

"That'll, more than likely, be what we do," Malzahn said. "That's what we've been shooting for. But, you know, right now it is what it is."

Fifth-year senior offensive guard Alex Kozan has seen a variety of quarterback situations during his time on the Plains.

Kozan redshirt in 2012 when Kiehl Frazier was named the starter on Aug. 23 and the revolving door that ensued at the position throughout that season. In 2013, Nick Marshall won the job on Aug. 17. A year later, Marshall was the returning starter but was suspended for the first half of the season opener and Johnson filled in. Last year, Johnson was named the starter at the end of spring practice but lost the job after three games and later got it back when White was hurt.

With two weeks until the season starts, Kozan said not having a starter named at quarterback isn't an issue for the players.

"For us as an offense, everybody has their goal and their job," Kozan said. "So on every play, all 11 guys have to execute, all 11 have to do their each individual job. So if the 10 of us are doing that, it doesn't really matter who the quarterback is as long as he does his job. So all of us are focused on doing what we can and then once coach Malzahn decides on who that guy is, we'll plug him in and get that cohesion as an offense."