Burns, Todd quarterback battle still undecided

Auburn’s quarterback competition shows no sign of being resolved any time soon.

That’s fine by Tony Franklin.

The Tigers’ offensive coordinator is content to let quarterbacks Kodi Burns and Chris Todd battle for the No. 1 job, a competition that began in spring practice. Franklin said Thursday that the race wasn’t close to finished.

“I’ll just keep evaluating every day and realizing regardless of that, is that they are both going to play,” he said. “They are both good.”

Thursday, a reporter asked Franklin if having two evenly matched quarterbacks was “a problem.”

Franklin certainly doesn’t see it that way.

“It’s a really good problem,” he said. “It’s the best problem I think I’ve had in my life. I’ve had a lot of problems, but this is a really good one.

“They are both good; they are both competitive; they both are good leaders; they both like each other; the team likes both of them. It’s a really good problem. There’s nothing negative about it at all. It’s nothing but positive.”

The two quarterbacks have split practice reps more or less equally over the first six days of preseason practice. Counting every drill in which the quarterbacks work against the defense, Todd has completed 139 of 185 passes, a 75-percent mark. Burns has completed 110 of 160 passes, or 68.8 percent.

Todd worked with the first-team offense in 11-on-11 drills Thursday afternoon, completing all seven of his passes, including a touchdown to tight end Tommy Trott. Burns, who worked with the second-team offense, was 5-for-6.

Tuberville and Franklin have both said they expect both quarterbacks to play this season, regardless of who is named the starter. Senior wideout Rod Smith, Auburn’s leading receiver last season, likes the idea of two starting-quality signal-callers.

“It’s always a good thing when you have two good quarterbacks competing for a job,” Smith said. “If one goes down, we’ll have another good quarterback to step in.”

No matter how long the quarterback competition lasts, Auburn’s players — including the two quarterbacks — agree the end result will be positive.

“It helps me because Chris is going to make me better and I’m going to make Chris better,” Burns said. “Whichever one they go with, I think both of us will be fine. We’ve got to keep working hard.

“There’s always competition anywhere you go — all it does is make you better.”

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