Hugh Freeze shares what he is looking for among Auburn quarterbacks

One of the biggest roster questions for Hugh Freeze as he approaches his first year at Auburn: Who will be the starting quarterback? Freeze and his coaching staff have options, too.

With Payton Thorne transferring in from Michigan State, the quarterback competition has boiled down to him and a pair of returners: Robby Ashford and Holden Geriner. Freeze said he plans to rotate all three with the first, second and third teams during the first five practices with a keen eye on their performances.

“And Monty [Philip Montgomery] and I and Kent [Austin] set down — I think we have a really good plan of the rotation between those three guys and they’re all going to rotate for the first five practices pretty evenly amongst the ones and two and threes and we’ll evaluate all those reps and then kind of recalibrate, I guess is the word, and set down and kind of go from there after the first five,” Freeze said at the outset of fall camp.

As for what Freeze wants to see from the Auburn quarterbacks during those first five practices, the list is fairly extensive.

He of course will be judging how the quarterbacks assess and identify coverages, how they respond to looks and change the play calls accordingly and then put the ball in the right spot, on time. And more than any of the strict on-field abilities, Freeze will be monitoring which of the quarterbacks the team ends up rallying around.

“Create pressure and adverse situations and see how they respond,” Freeze said. “Are they evaluating the coverages correctly and is the ball going to the right spot? And is the decision to stay with the run or get into the RPO, the pass off of that — all of those things will be evaluated. And who does the team really rally around the most?”

The Auburn quarterback battle could roll into the season, according to Freeze

When Freeze took over at Auburn, one of his primary tasks was shoring up the quarterback position, which was abysmal in coach Bryan Harsin‘s second season in 2022.

The position was bad enough to get Harsin fired, with starter Robby Ashford failing to hit the 50% completion percentage mark on the season after taking over for TJ Finley.

In an attempt to shore up the position, Auburn took in Thorne this offseason. He and Ashford are expected to battle for the job in fall camp, but that battle could last well into the season, Freeze said.

“I am cautiously optimistic that we can win some football games with several of those guys,” Freeze said, according to The Auburn Observer’s Justin Ferguson. “It may be three games into the season before we know this is absolutely the guy. I hope that’s not the case, but it could be.”