Auburn quarterback update: Hugh Freeze reveals latest on competition entering Oklahoma week
SEC play is in full swing but the Auburn Tigers are still dealing with questions at the quarterback position. With that, head coach Hugh Freeze shared the latest on the quarterback competition as the Tigers prepare to take on the Oklahoma Sooners.
Hugh Freeze explained that Auburn is in for a quarterback battle. Both Hank Brown and Payton Thorne are going to have the opportunity to win the starting job for this week.
“It’s going to be a battle this week,” Hugh Freeze said. “Try to figure out who can master the plan against all these fronts that we’re going to face at Oklahoma.”
Payton Thorne, who is the more experienced quarterback, was the starter to begin the season. However, Freeze benched him against Arkansas for Hank Brown. However, Brown struggled with turnovers in the first half and was then benched for Thorne in the second half of the loss.
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“You watch the first drive and you believe Hank is making the right decisions until you get to the 25-yard line or whatever it is and we’ve got the check down wide open and he makes that decision, and then made two other poor ones, but looked really, really sharp at times,” Freeze said.
“Payton in the second half looked really sharp. He had a pick, I think the ball was catchable. So, again, I know quarterbacks get the blame all the time but I thought it was a well-thrown ball and the right decision. We do need to clean up a few other things that I do think he could’ve done to start the third quarter. The first play, he makes a read that’s not the right read and put us behind the chains. We’re dang good, truthfully, when we’re second and six. We’re not so good when we’re in second or third and 10. The margin for us right now is so small and I’m not trying to beat him up on the game on that one decision, I’m just saying that’s how critical it feels.”
The small mistakes have turned into big issues for Auburn. The Tigers are 83rd in the country in terms of penalties, getting hit with 59.8 yards worth per game. Worse, Auburn is 132nd in turnover margin, having given the ball away 10 more times than they’ve taken it away.
“It feels like it’s kind of like life and death with our margin of error right now, particularly if you’re going to turn the ball over in those plays,” Freeze said. “Because if you make the correct read there and hand the ball off I think it’s a five, six-yard gain and now you’re in second and four. Instead, we were second and 11. So, those are the things we’ve got to meet and get cleaned up as coaches and make sure we’re not continuously making those decisions. Defenses are gonna win some plays. They’re pretty good. They’re well coached and they’ve got some athletes over there in this league but we can’t do that for them with a poor decision. So, that comes to us coaching them properly and making sure they understand the gameplan and the execution but I did think Payton played very solid…thought he had a solid second half.”
Now, the challenge for Freeze and the Auburn coaching staff is to either develop players to the level they need to be or to find players who can play at that level. It’s a difficult challenge and one that Freeze addressed.
“That’s something we take week by week. We, obviously, love our players and believe in them. You want to believe you can help them get out of those situations and get out of those decisions and certainly, we should be able to get out of having a late hit…we’re going to keep believing in our young men for sure. We’ve got Holden [Geriner] sitting there too who is a quality player and we’ve got to figure out does he fit into the occasion also,” Freeze said.
“But, truthfully, right now this week I think you’re looking at Hank and Payton kind of battling it out to see who gets the nod.”
The Auburn Tigers are now 2-2 with a loss in their SEC opener. From here, the schedule gets very difficult too. The Tigers’ next three games are all against teams ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll.