Auburn may get QB Sean White back for Birmingham Bowl

AUBURN – As Auburn begins bowl practice Monday, head coach Gus Malzahn’s first objective is to determine the health of his team.

During the Birmingham Bowl media conference Thursday, Malzahn sounded optimistic at the prospect of getting redshirt freshman quarterback Sean White and sophomore center Austin Golson back for the game against Memphis (9-3) on Dec. 30.

Auburn begins its practices for bowl teams Monday and will likely give a lot of early action to freshman and sophomores that will be returning for future seasons.

White has been inactive since being ineffective in the second half of the Tigers 20-13 home loss to Georgia on Nov. 14. After the 29-13 loss to No. 2 Alabama in the Iron Bowl, Malzahn admitted “Sean isn’t healthy” and the 6-foot quarterback wasn’t physically able to play in the final two games of the 2015 season.

After the loss to Georgia, White acknowledged his mobility issues were evident from the first series but Auburn (6-6) continued to play him in the game until a disappointing drive where he threw three straight incompletions in a 24-second drive.

“I was comfortable enough to go out there and play,” White said after the loss on Nov. 14. “I wish I could have played better for my team and have more success but I didn’t. It just didn’t happen.”

Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said the following week that Auburn’s coaches “put him in a bad situation in that next series”.

“It was obvious after the fact,” Lashlee said about White’s lack of mobility. “Sean practiced well on Thursday and for the first time had a pretty good pep in his step.”

White finished the season with 1,064 yards and one touchdown pass while completing just 57.7 percent of his passes in six games.

Malzahn said he believes the 32-day gap between the regular season finale and the Birmingham Bowl will allow White the proper time to be healthy enough to play and possibly start in the postseason game.

“He was getting healthier toward the end,” Malzahn said about White. “We're going to practice Monday and we'll see all of our guys are doing. We had some other guys banged up, too, so hopefully those guys will be back and ready to compete.”

The other half of the offensive snap battery has been out since the loss to Georgia as well in sophomore center Austin Golson. Golson has been battling an unknown leg injury and have been replaced in the final two weeks of the season by senior Devonte Danzey.

“He's kind of in that same boat (as Sean White),” Malzahn said. “We're hoping that he's going to be healthy enough to really practice and all that, but he's a guy that's kind of in that same boat. We've had some extended time off and we hope that really helps.”