What Auburn football QB Deuce Knight said about debut start vs. Mercer
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AUBURN — All Deuce Knight needed was one play to put the Jordan-Hare Stadium crowd on its feet. He dropped back looking left. Then he peered to the right. He wouldn’t throw from the empty backfield. Instead, after a quick glance back left, he took off.
The five-star freshman’s scamper ended 75 yards away in the end zone. It was a one-play scoring drive, and it was just the beginning Knight’s first career start, as Auburn football blew out FCS Mercer 62-17 on Saturday, Nov. 22.
Knight’s day ended with 401 total yards and six touchdowns, the latter of which matched a single-game best in program history. What’s more was his first three carries resulting in touchdowns. His yardage total accounted for nearly three-fourth’s of Auburn‘s 547-yard output.
To Knight, he had the easy part.
“(We’ve) Got a great O-Line, great receivers, running backs, coaches,” Knight said postgame. “It makes the game easy for you. All you’ve got to do is just go out there and literally do what you’re supposed to do. Like, the definition of what a quarterback’s supposed to do.”
Auburn’s quarterbacks also helped Knight. They did so throughout the past two weeks, he said, preparing the him for such a moment. But Jackson Arnold set up the game-opening touchdown run from the sideline, calling out Mercer’s coverage.
“That’s what I was expecting, exactly what Jackson called out,” Knight said. “I told my whole family I believe Jackson’s probably top-10 smartest people I ever met. He called it out exactly.”
There wasn’t much gloating from the 18-year-old postgame. It didn’t matter that he matched a Cam Newton single-game record, with four rushing touchdowns from a quarterback, in one half. The same went for the entirety of his near-gaudy stat line. The youngster was productive, but in his estimation, that wasn’t an ego boost.
“I feel kind of the same as I’ve always been,” Knight said of confidence. “It was a good win, a good game, but I think I’ve always been a pretty confident guy.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: What Auburn football QB Deuce Knight said about debut start vs. Mercer
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