Here you go....
Bryan Matthews
AuburnSports.com Publisher
Talk about it in The Bunker
The sting in Ben Tate's hands is a sign the battle for the starting quarterback position is shaping up as more than a two-horse race.
Juniors Kodi Burns and Neil Caudle dueled to a draw in the spring while senior Chris Todd mostly stood and watched as he recovered from shoulder surgery.
But the watching is over.
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Todd participated in all the non-throwing drills during spring.
"Chris Todd, he puts some zing on that ball. He can throw it pretty hard. You can definitely tell that his shoulder was injured last spring and it's getting a lot better now," Tate said.
"I have to tell him sometimes, 'Hey Chris. Don't throw it so hard to me. We're just playing catch. We're just trying to get warmed up.'"
You can't blame Todd for putting a little extra zing on the ball during warm-ups after what he's been through the last two years.
The injury happened during the fall of 2007, Todd's lone season at Hutchison (Kan.) Community College. After consulting several doctors, Todd elected to rehab his shoulder rather than have surgery.
A decision he would regret.
"Looking back on it, if I had known exactly what happened and talked to the right doctors right off the bat and seeing exactly what was wrong with it and knowing the situation that would have been at hand – of course as soon as I did that I went and got it fixed," Todd said.
Todd elected to rehab because he wanted to compete for the starting job as soon as he arrived in Auburn last January. He eventually won the job, starting five of the first six games, but was benched in favor of Burns after the firing of offensive coordinator Tony Franklin.
Todd put up decent numbers as a junior, completing 55.1 percent of his passes for 903 yards and a team-best five touchdown passes. But his lack of arm strength was apparent to even the most novice fan.
Noted orthopedist Dr. James Andrews performed Todd's surgery just before Christmas. More than six months later Todd now feels like the same quarterback that competed nose-to-nose with record-breaking Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell for the starting job in 2006.
"The ball spins so much better now," Todd said. "It's coming out of my hand a whole lot better.
"Now with it being fixed, it's just a huge difference. It's a drastic change. It's very noticeable. Whatever he did in the surgery, he did a good job."
It's not just Todd's arm strength that's returned. His confidence is also building each day of Auburn's voluntary workouts this summer.
"There were times last year I'd see a throw and I couldn't make it," he said. "I've got to tell myself, 'You can make those throws,' now so I'll start doing it again.
"It's huge, confidence-wise, just feeling like, 'You know who you are again and you know what you can do again.' I can do it. It's big mentally as well as physically."
The next step for Todd is actually competing for the starting position. He'll be one of six healthy scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, including three true freshmen, when AU opens fall practice Aug. 4.
"I definitely think there's going to be a small window of opportunity," he said. "I can't really ask for more than that because I really didn't do anything this spring.
"Whatever kind of window of opportunity we're going to have here, whatever I get, I just want to take full advantage of that. The tools are working this time around. Hopefully they're sharpened a little bit more and it'll work a lot of better."
Tate's certainly not counting Todd out of the race.
"He's going to be a guy to keep an eye on. He might start easing his way up the depth chart. You never know," Tate said.
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