Auburn start Payton Thorne in second half, Hugh Freeze reacts to Hank Brown struggles

Hugh Freeze was quick to make a quarterback change for Auburn following the loss to Cal, turning to Hank Brown. Payton Thorne was previously the guy but spent the New Mexico game and the first half of Saturday vs. Arkansas watching from the bench.

This was until Brown threw three interceptions as Auburn went scoreless through two quarters at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Freeze felt strongly enough to make another change. It’s Thorne who has taken the field to begin the second half against Arkansas, hoping to find a spark for the offense.

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“Baffled, perplexed, perturbed,” Kessenich said as Thorne took the field to begin the second half. “Hugh Freeze when I asked him about quarterback Hank Brown. I said ‘You going to come back with him?’ He said ‘I don’t know.’ So obviously, during the halftime, he rethought this and enters Payton Thorne.”

One of the big reasons Freeze decided to move on from Thorne was due to a large quantity of turnovers. Four interceptions against Cal was a huge part of why Auburn wound up on the losing end, certainly not a result anybody inside the program expected heading into the season. Thorne being an experienced quarterback, the performance was not up to par from Freeze’s eyes.

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“Offensively, it was an awful performance,” Freeze said during a press conference. “We’ve got to find some consistency there and that’s our job this week to find that as we get ready to play.”

But Brown was providing similar results on Saturday heading into the halftime locker room. All three of the final drives for the Tigers resulted in turnovers, two of which were interceptions from Brown. His first INT was on Auburn’s opening possession of the game.

This performance is quite different than the one last week against New Mexico, where Freeze felt like his offense might be back on the right track. Brown threw for 235 yards and four touchdowns while completing 68% of his throws. Auburn’s run game was quite good too, going for 268 yards on 40 carries as they pulled away in the second half.

As he left the Arkansas game, Brown completed seven of 13 passes for 72 yards and the three interceptions. Who knows — his day may not be over, depending on how Thorne performs with his opportunity. Auburn is down just seven points heading into the second half with an opportunity to pick up a SEC win.