Good News: Tigers surprise with the return of a major star to club

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

Auburn freshman quarterback Walker White has a friend and mentor whose name many Auburn fans will recognize.

Both training with QB Country out of Mobile, White and former Auburn and Oregon quarterback Bo Nix have had the opportunity to build a relationship that first started over the phone as Nix was in Eugene, Oregon and White was in Fayetteville, Ark.

Oregon QB Bo Nix proved he's a 'winner' at Senior Bowl | Yardbarker

But since then, the two recently had an opportunity to meet in person.

“I know they’re getting a really good player,” Nix said of White during Senior Bowl media day in Mobile on Jan. 31. “They’re getting a good guy, too. I understand that he works really hard and he’s a great teammate.”

After having been committed to Auburn since Feb. 3, 2023, White officially onboarded with Hugh Freeze and the Tigers during the early signing period in December, inking his national letter of intent on Dec. 20.

Less than three weeks later and after appearing in the All-American Bowl on Jan. 6, White made his way to Auburn’s campus, officially enrolled as a Tiger.

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 considering Nix found himself in a similar situation when he was weighing his decision to transfer from Auburn, where his father Pat Nix played quarterback in the 90s, he was able to offer White a bit of advice.

In an interview with AL.com, White’s mother, Amy White, told the story of her son and Nix’s interaction.

“If you want to go somewhere else, go somewhere else,” said Amy White, echoing what Nix told her son. “And I think that kind of pushed Walker a bit.”

In an interview with The Athletic, White said Nix was quick to offer him a useful piece of advice.

“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.

Walker White - Football - Auburn University Athletics

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.

Throw in White, and Auburn could be looking at a four-man battle in the spring.

“I just hope they give him a chance,” Nix said of White.