Roman Harper, Cole Cubelic react to Auburn QB issues

Year Two of the Hugh Freeze era has not started well on the Plains. No matter how you viewed Auburn heading into 2024, beating Cal was always a part of the plan, especially at home. Instead, the Golden Bears came to Jordan-Hare Stadium and pulled off the upset, with quarterback Payton Thorne‘s four interceptions being the main highlight.

While Auburn fans are paying a lot of attention to the quarterback, Cole Cubelic of the SEC Network is pumping the breaks. In his mind, not every intervention was on Thorne, citing some poor offensive line play throughout the game.

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“Payton Thorne, actually, for a lot of the game, made some good throws,” Cubelic said Monday via The Paul Finebaum Show. “Two of those interceptions, he was getting hit. So, I’m not going to be mad at Payton Thorne if he’s getting hit or his arm is getting hit, it kind of flutters up, and it gets intercepted.”

Roman Harper pushed back a bit, saying Thorne needs to be better for Auburn. Freeze was quite vocal about sticking with Thorne this offseason at quarterback instead of going into the NCAA transfer portal to find a new one. Auburn’s NIL money was spent elsewhere as well, hoping to bolster other areas of the roster.

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Putting faith in Thorne means he needs to perform better in those types of games.

“You bring back Payton Thorne, you expect him to be better,” Harper said. “You don’t expect him to go out and still have four interceptions. Whenever four interceptions show up, people are going to blame there first. It wasn’t all the way his fault. Actually, I thought Cal’s quarterback (Fernando Mendoza) just out-dueled him, at the end of the day.”

The last interception was a dagger for Auburn, in many ways. It was No. 4 for Thorne and meant Cal could kneel the clock out. The play itself was not great outside of Thorne’s throw either. Freshman wide receiver Cam Coleman was the target after telling the sideline he needed to be subbed out due to an injury.

Freeze may have called for the play but at some point, Harper believes Thorne needs to be able to go against the play-call for the betterment of the team.

“He’s got to be able to look up, see ‘I know I’m supposed to throw a nine route and the nine route is just not open. So don’t throw it.’ At some point, you got to make that decision. ‘I know Coach may want me to do this, maybe want me to show off this new shiny toy called Cam Coleman. And he was just limping, so I’m not going to throw it.’ These little things to override,” Harper said.

Hank Brown has become a popular name surrounding Auburn since the loss, specifically on social media. Shouts have been made for the backup to start moving forward, beginning with Saturday’s game against New Mexico. After all, Brown will still be in the program next season while Thorne is out of eligibility.

Freeze revealed Brown would receive a few first-team snaps during practice but Thorne is still the starter. A switch cannot be made yet, especially if Freeze does not believe Brown has been better than Thorne during the week.

“I struggle to understand why people think coaches in this league, with this much money on the line and their reputation at this level on the line, go to practice every day and see another player that’s better and get to games and say ‘You know what? Nah. Put my guy back in there. Let’s throw more picks,'” Cubelic said.

Auburn faces New Mexico at home with kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT. SEC play will commence the following week, with three consecutive games against Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Georgia before having a bye week.