Hugh Freeze: Auburn's offense was 'awful' vs. Cal

Auburn finds itself at 2-0 to start Hugh Freeze’s tenure after their win this past weekend over California. However, considering how much of a struggle the Tiger offense was at times, Freeze also knows that it’s going to need to be much better moving forward.

Freeze dove into his offense’s poor performance against the Golden Bears during his press conference on Monday. Whether it was because of their lack of total possessions or turnovers, he was clear that it was a fairly brutal outing from the unit.

“The offense was awful,” Freeze stated. “We got the ball in the third quarter. I don’t know how many minutes were left but, our first possession in the third quarter, we had only had 25 offensive plays.”

“I do believe we had a really good plan offensively, particularly in the second half, and think we would have scored points had we not turned it over two more times. But we only had four possessions,” said Freeze. “Those turnovers? You can’t win football games turning the ball over. I thought we were ripping off some pretty good runs and either had a penalty or a turnover for those few possessions we had in the second half.”

Auburn scored 14 points in their win over Cal in Berkley on Saturday night. They were able to come out victorious even though they turned the ball over five times with QB Payton Thorne throwing an interception and losing a fumble, RBs Jarquez Hunter and Damari Alston also lost a fumble apiece, and the offense as a whole giving it up once on downs.

Those turnovers are likely why Auburn only possessed the ball over just over 25 minutes. In total, they also only accumulated 230 total yards with Thorne throwing for just 94 on the night.

Still, to be fair, Freeze reminded everyone that a win is a win. It wasn’t pretty and he knows everyone will have their own reactions to it but, to him and his players, the victory is the only stat that matters from their trip out to the west coast.

“I think there’s some things we can build on, for sure. But, ultimately, the bottom line is our kids found a way to win and we celebrate that,” said Freeze. “You can write that however you want to write it but the bottom line is the Auburn Tigers are 2-0 and we celebrate that.”

Freeze addresses quarterback split between Thorne, Ashford

Hugh Freeze seemed to have a pretty clear plan at quarterback for Auburn with Payton Thorne as the starter and Robby Ashford as a dynamic reserve option. However, after Saturday’s close call at California, he says he is having to reevaluate that rotation.

Freeze addressed the issues with his quarterback room during his press conference on Monday. He said that he has yet to check in with them regarding how they felt about sharing this weekend’s snaps. He noted that he was just doing what he had to do considering the lack of offensive punch that the Tigers had throughout the contest.

“I don’t know that that’s exactly how I want it to look like,” Freeze said. “We just had no juice, no momentum. So you’re kind of searching for it. We’ve got to figure that piece of it out.”

In the 14-10 win over Cal, Thorne went 9-14 for 94 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. As QB2, Ashford came in and went 1/3 for no yards while also rushing for a handful of yards.

The fact of the matter is Thorne’s early inconsistency had made it easier to look to Ashford in spots. Still, at that position, Freeze wants to find what works best for each player as well as their entire offense.

“We need Payton to play better, truthfully, too,” said Freeze. “I’m not beating up Payton. He played really well that last possession but we do need more consistency there throughout the whole game. That’s our challenge – to get him or/and Robby and Holden (Geriner) to that point. They know that.”

It’s clear that Freeze wants Ashford to be a part of Auburn’s offense one way or another. With how his dynamic has looked with Thorne through two games, though, it’s something that he is actively reassessing ahead of their third game against Samford before conference play starts.

“That’s the big challenge,” Freeze said. “I do not like the way the other night went with it. But, at the same time, I think Robby has to get his touches.”

“That is absolutely something that’s on my mind and we’ve got to figure it out.”