Why former Oregon, Auburn QB Bo Nix hopes freshman Walker White gets a chance at Auburn

Walker White, a freshman quarterback for Auburn, has a friend and mentor who many Auburn supporters will be familiar with.

 

White and former Auburn and Oregon quarterback Bo Nix, who are both working with QB Country out of Mobile, have had the chance to develop a friendship over the phone, while Nix was in Eugene, Oregon, and White was in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

 

However, the two haven’t had the chance to meet up in person since then.

On January 31, during Senior Bowl media day in Mobile, Nix remarked of White, “I know they’re getting a really good player.” They’re also getting a decent guy. I am aware of how hard he works and how wonderful of a teammate he is.

 

White signed his national letter of intent on December 20, 2022, marking his official onboarding with Hugh Freeze and the Tigers during the early signing period in December, after having committed to Auburn since February 3, 2023.

 

After playing in the All-American Bowl on January 6, White arrived on Auburn’s

campus less than three weeks later and formally enrolled as a Tiger.

 

Nix also had a minor part.

For White, coming to Auburn meant breaking away from family tradition and

playing somewhere other than the University of Arkansas, where his father

and two of his brothers spent their college careers.

And Nix was able to give White some advise because he was in a similar

position when he was pondering whether to transfer from Auburn, where

his father Pat Nix was a quarterback in the 1990s.

 

Amy White, White’s mother, described her son’s meeting with Nix in an interview with AL.com.

 

Echoing what Nix had told her son, Amy White remarked, “If you want to go

somewhere else, go somewhere else.” And I believe that gave Walker a little push.

 

White stated in an interview with The Athletic that Nix came through with a helpful piece of advise right away.

“You’re only as good as the people around you,” White said, echoing what Nix told him.

 

And it was that comment that led White to become one of Auburn’s biggest recruiters, helping Hugh Freeze and the Tigers secure the seventh-ranked recruiting class in the country and a historic wide receiver class.

 

Now White finds himself in the same shoes Nix did in 2019 – as a freshman quarterback on Auburn’s football team.

 

“I expect him to have a fun career. He’s going to be able to learn and pick up a lot because I’ve just heard the people he’s worked with in the past and everyone I’ve talked to speaks very high about him,” Nix said. “I’ve only been able to talk to him a few times and be around him just a couple, but I think Auburn got a good one.”

 

Coming in as a 4-star prospect, White joins an Auburn quarterback room that features three other scholarship quarterbacks in incumbent starter Payton Thorne, sophomore Holden Geriner and redshirt freshman Hank Brown.

 

Following Auburn’s loss to Maryland in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30, Freeze called Auburn’s quarterback race “wide open” after Thorne and Geriner struggled, while Brown turned some heads.

Add White, and Auburn might have a four-man competition by springtime.