Nick Marshall has been criticized for his inaccurate passing game in JUCO, however, I believe that Nick Marshall's athleticism is enough to guarantee Auburn makes a bowl game this year at the very least. There's a particular aspect of Gus Malzahn's offense that I believe makes this a real possibility, and I've pulled a few highlights from the 2010 season to prove my point.
Consider opening game against Arkansas State. There were lots of unknowns about Gus Malzahn's offense with a dangerous runner at quarterback. You may think that in the following play Arkansas State had a busted coverage or a busted defense, but you'll soon see that this is not the case. Malzahn's offense sets up this opening which leads to big plays by a running quarterback. It's something we seriously lacked in 2009 and 2011.
In this play (3 min 4 second mark), we see Mario Fannin cross behind the line of scrimmage giving himself away as either a blocker or a delayed receiver coming out of the backfield. The left side linebacker reads Fannin and shuffles to the left. The defensive ends know they must keep containment, so they remain on the outside of the line. The safety reads the option to the running back and checks that the running quarterback doesn't take off and trusts that the middle of the defensive line will seal up the middle. However, the offensive line is in pass protection and I believe this is actually a pass play. The defensive line is allowed into to the backfield but the pocket stays protected.
Further, Darvin Adams is running a crossing route and the linebacker goes with him. Finally, the safety protection must check that Adams, Fannin, and a possible quarterback run to the outside (after the fake to McCallebb) is contained. This opens up a huge hole in the middle of the field, and a fast athletic quarterback can not only take advantage of it for a few yards but turn it into a huge gain as in this case a long touchdown run.
http://youtu.be/8kgJzcULdAc?t=46m17sHere again in the LSU game, we see a similar play. This time it is a called draw, but the elements are the same. Fannin goes wide drawing a linebacker. The ends must keep contain so they remain outside. The offensive line isn't doing much physically to the defensive line. They're just fanning them out to create a wide hole in the middle. We pulled a guard to block a linebacker that reads the play (LSU is a good football with good players, but Malzahn accounts for this and doesn't rely solely on his trickery in the backfield). The receivers all fake go routes and also sheer towards the sideline pulling the DBs out of the middle of the field. Even if they were running a zone defense, the secondary would have to at least shuffle towards where the receivers are going. This isn't just for long touchdown runs. Picking up 5-6 yards would be sufficient on a call like this against a top ranked SEC defense.
The whole point to this play and plays like it is to create a wide space in the middle for the quarterback to go through. Because of the design, there's only two crucial points to take care of to make the play successful. The pulling guard has to at least shield the linebacker and not let him stuff the middle and the receivers have to sell their routes. Then it's all on the quarterback and if he's fast, he can at least make it 3rd and short.
http://youtu.be/8kgJzcULdAc?t=55m44sAnother example against Ole Miss, though this one features more hat-on-hat physical blocking by the linemen. In this one, you can see that even when the defense seems to read the play and force Auburn to play more physical football, the quarterback is already five yards down field before he has to start dancing.
We may not have Cam Newton that can dance and juke and break tackles for 40 yard gains. However, Nick Marshall is touted as having tremendous speed. He'll get those five yards. And 2nd and 5 or 3rd and 1 are much more manageable than the 2nds and 3rds and long like we had in 2011 and 2012.
This is just one of many reasons why having Gus back and having an athletic quarterback can vastly improve our ability to compete in the SEC. Not only will the quarterback draw work, it will help sell the fakes in the backfield and help open up the passing game.
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