Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Moving from a special-situation quarterback in Gus Malzahn's offense as a freshman to the starting quarterback in new Auburn coordinator Scot Loeffler's attack has proven to be a difficult transition for Shiloh Christian product Kiehl Frazier.

As a freshman, Frazier backed up Barrett Trotter and Clint Moseley, who were given more leeway in the passing game while Frazier was better suited for the zone-read running plays. He played in all 13 Tiger games, including a Chick-fil-A bowl victory over Virginia, and accumulated 343 rushing yards on 76 attempts (4.3 per carry). He lost only 16 yards all season.

In 2012, Frazier has just 16 net yards rushing on 31 attempts. He's lost 54 yards. Instead, he's having to handle all aspects of an offense that, frankly, has been close to abominable through four games. After trying just 12 passes as a freshman, completing five for 34 yards, he's thrown 89 passes this year and completed 47 (52.8 percent) with seven interceptions (five more than last year). He's averaging 136.5 yards per attempt.

Frazier and Kerrville, Texas, product Johnny Manziel came out of high school the same year, but so far their careers are on different trajectories.

Auburn Coach Gene Chizik cites typical SEC growing pains for a young quarterback as the chief culprit in Frazier's struggles.

"Well, we’re hoping Kiehl is significantly improving," Chizik said Wednesday in the SEC coaches teleconference. "There has been some signs of improvement. We certainly know there is a lot of room left to grow. Experence for a quarterback in this league is the great equalizer. ... He's got a lot to do, a lot of work to do, a lot of room for growth. There are some things I think he's looked back on this last week that he's had a chance to see and grow from."

Frazier and the Tigers were off Saturday while the downtrodden Arkansas defense surrendered record numbers offensively against A&M's Manziel.

But Chizik completely danced around a question as to whether he thought Frazier could experience some success against the Razorback pass defense.

Arkansas Coach John L. Smith, addressing Frazier's running ability during the teleconference, said, "I don't know if anybody compares to Manziel, and [Louisiana-Monroe's Kolton] Browning was awfully special as well, but he can move. Basically last year he was kind of their option guy. And we know he could run the football in high school."

Smith, though, said it seems obvious Auburn doesn't want to run Frazier as much now that he's the starter. Against LSU, freshman Jonathan Wallace came in for three snaps to run the "Wildcat." "But [Frazier] has the abilty to move and get out of trouble and he has the ability to run the option."

It sounds as if Smith believes Auburn could have added some running to complement the passing for Frazier during its off week to jump-start the offense.

"Like all the younger guys in the league, if you play too darned early it's not a good thing, but playing early you're going to get better all the time," Smith said. "I don't see them going away ... for the Wildcat. I see them sticking with this young man [Frazier]."

Tigers' Strength
Auburn held LSU to 12 points in the Tigers' best defensive performance, albeit a loss, on Sept. 22 at Jordan-Hare Stadium.