Extensive Kent Austin Q&A: Fixing the offense, Payton Thorne's potential, coaching journey and more

AUBURN — New Auburn quarterbacks coach Kent Austin spoke to the media for the first time on Wednesday as the Tigers go through spring camp. Austin came to Auburn with Hugh Freeze from Liberty, where he was the offensive coordinator with Freeze.

Austin took an analyst role with Auburn when he arrived, a step backwards for someone with his pedigree, to be honest. Austin played at Ole Miss where he ranks fourth all-time in passing yards, he was drafted into the NFL, and later began a long CFL career. He threw for over 36,000 yards in the Canadian Football League, tossing 198 touchdowns. He won four Grey Cups, two as a player, one as offensive coordinator and one as head coach. He was later offensive coordinator at Ole Miss 15 years ago and then co-offensive coordinator with Freeze at Liberty.

But Austin did his job in 2023, working off the field as Philip Montgomery coordinated the offense and coached the quarterbacks. When the opportunity arose after the season and Montgomery was fired, Freeze elevated Austin to quarterbacks coach. It’s a move both are very comfortable with, and for Austin, he’s certainly thrilled to be back on the field and coaching what he believes is a confident and talented quarterback room.

Here’s a lengthy, but well worth the read Q&A with Austin. Sometimes, it’s better to just provide the quotes and let the reader take in the perspective. I think this is one of those interviews.

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Let’s start with Austin’s views on last year’s offense, what he witnessed from his vantage point, and what he can help do to fix it in his new role. When I asked this question, Austin admitted it was a “loaded” question, basically saying there’s a lot there and he may not be able to get into it all.

Here’s his answer.

“It’s our jobs as coaches to ultimately get our players to play to the best of their ability. What we know as coaches is irrelevant if our players don’t know it. I truly believe in teaching and teaching the game. Regarding my room, if you don’t have the skill set to play at this level, it doesn’t matter. You aren’t going to play here anyway. What matters is do you know how to play the game as a quarterback? How do you conceptualize the offense in a way that when you layer the defense on top of it…can you put our offense in a position to be successful through great decision making? You have to be a teacher of the game in a way that’s a level of understanding more than any other position. That’s required in coaching the room.

“There were obvious first-year issues in getting to know our players, understanding their ability, putting them in position to be successful. We had some deficiencies offensively, I want talk specifically about that, that other good football teams took advantage of and exploited that. Some of it you handle through recruiting and getting better players. There’s always growth in the first year and going into year two and year three, that will show up on the field with consistent coaching and developing.”

OK, now let’s talk about Payton Thorne. The Michigan State transfer arrived in the summer, had his ups and downs, rotated with Robby Ashford, and even experienced two play callers within the same game multiple times last season. It was a bumpy road for a lot of reasons. Now, Austin first talked about Thorne’s season last year, then talked about the disadvantage to Thorne having not participated in spring last year compared to going through spring this year.

“Payton is a really competitive young man, which we want. We want quarterbacks with grit. Most of the time, he handled it well. He’s a mature young man. Other times, he didn’t. I’d rather dial a guy back in than dial him up from that standpoint. The thing people don’t realize is that Payton did things on the field, because of his experience, that some of those given situations weren’t even covered for him. I’ll give you an example to crystallize it so you don’t think I’m talking in vague terms here and trying to avoid the question.

“If you look at the drive against Alabama, we’re down on the 6-yard-line before they got the ball back when we dropped the punt, we are 2nd-and-goal from the 6 and we had a play designed to get the ball to the back with a crack on the boundary side of the single. The entire week, all we did was set up the defense for that throw. We never came back to the field side, the three-receiver pattern to the field in practice. I mentioned to Payton at the end of the week that that thing was going to get called because we repped it a bunch. If you see their corner even looking to crack replace and to replace the backer man-to-man on the running back, assuming we had man-to-man coverage, you have to get off that because they’re going to make that and it could be a disastrous play.

“Now, we didn’t rep it, didn’t show it on film. This is the recall that guy has. We went into the game and that’s exactly what they did. He saw the corner turn his eyes towards the tailback and start to stomp his feet. He turned immediately and threw to our slot receiver on the backline, hit our receiver in the face mask and it bounced out of bounds. It’s game over. We go up 28-20 at that point. They have to go down the field, convert a 4th-and-31, then they have to go for two to just get into overtime. I think the game is over at that point. Well, nobody sees those things. I could list you a 100 of those things last year that he did for us. Now, did he have his struggles for us? Of course he did. Hopefully we’ll have a level of consistency in that room with him where some of those things are squeezed out of the offense.”

I then asked Austin about Thorne not going through spring last year, arriving in the summer, and asked if he could quantify how big a deal that was and is?

“That’s a great point. Missing spring, even as smart as he is, missing spring put him behind. Having another spring under his belt, moving to Coach Freeze’s offense, but there’s a body of work and a background of knowledge that always bleeds into other offenses. He has a body of work and knowledge base that can help him pick things up quickly. What he’s getting right now is multiple reps. He’s learning his players, he’s learning the new receivers, he’s learning the quality of the guys upfront, how we’re going to call the game — he studies that way.

“You have to play the game as a preparedness standpoint, you can’t always be reactionary in how you play. If your’e always reacting to stuff, that’s advantage defense. We teach in such a way that he can anticipate in a what’s happening in front of him and he can make a quicker decision for our offense. Those offensive reps help that, to get the logic in your head so when you see that visual pattern in your head in front of you, the decisions happen faster.”

Austin’s journey to Auburn is interesting, and really, it’s interesting listening to him talk about why he chose to get back into coaching and join Freeze at Liberty in 2019.

“You have to start with your belief that he can be successful. You’re in a sport that you have to win and we’re going to be judged and evaluated by our ability to win football games. Coach Freeze has proven that his entire career. Going with a person you believe will drive a culture that’s in alignment with our individual values and in alignment with my values, doesn’t carry the day completely. You have to be with a guy that you believe will be successful. That’s number one, can we win? Does this guy have the credentials that proves his ability to do that?

“When I interviewed with Coach Freeze, I was out of football. I wasn’t going to get back in. I turned down a couple of jobs. I sent him a quick text and congratulated him on getting back in, no need to respond, just well wishes. As Hugh does, he hits you right back with a text and we talked. I sat with Coach for an hour and fifteen minutes — just talked with him one on one in a private room. About 15 minutes of that was on football, the rest was on my life, what I had been through in the CFL, my personal life, everything.

“He didn’t say a word about himself the entire time. I knew how successful he was and how bright he is as a coach. I left that meeting knowing three things that were key for me. One, I knew he’d win. Second, I knew he would hire good men, not just guys that can coach ball, but guys that are trustworthy. Third, I knew he’d do it the right way. I’ve been around guys on all ends of the spectrum in terms of the culture they create and a lot of guys that I didn’t agree with. I was at a stage in my career that I wasn’t going to go work for anybody else. It had to be a guy that knew how to build it the right way. 

“The best coaches know clearly this game is about the players, it’s not about them. Coach Freeze gets that more than anybody else I’ve ever been around. I decided I’d be a part of it, picked up my stuff and went to Lynchburg.”

It was hard for Austin to stay “off the field” in his coaching duties, considering his extensive background, and did he consider not taking the position due to not being on the field?

“I tried to do the best in the role that I was given, but it was limited by rules and other things. I’ve always been a quarterbacks coach…it’s great to be back on the field. I have a great coach with me in Jesse Stone. He does a tremendous job. We’re fortunate to have him in that room as well. I love coaching that position. I’d probably be not telling the truth if there wasn’t a little trepidation in part of that, knowing if that absence of being a true on-field coach with a given position, would hurt me in being able to get back on the field. I wanted to be a part of this. There aren’t many places in the country that have the opportunity to win a national championship. It’s a pretty exclusive group, I think. This was one of them. I wanted to be a part of that and wanted to stay with Coach Freeze.

“When you’re as old as I am, you realize — I used to make three and five-year plans and not a one worked out as I planned. There are always curve balls. It’s your ability to adjust and continue to strive for success with a proper attitude and heart behind it that matters. What matters is how you deal with the situation and when you look at yourself in the mirror, are you proud of that? The ego part of it has to be put on the sideline. If you want to be a part of something and you agree to the position that’s given, then do that job to the best of your ability as unselfishly as you can, and see how it works out.”

Austin talked about his impressions of the QB room as a whole, saying he loves the willingness of his players to study and prepare, and loves the character of each of them.

“Number one, we have a room that clearly understands the key is preparation. Our guys will pay the price to prepare. They study, they ask questions, we drive to the why on everything. They need to understand why we are doing things the way we’re doing it and what we’re doing conceptually and why it’s designed to defeat the defense in front of us. They need to understand the why in everything and drive to the why. The only way you can do that is to prepare. Guys at this level, if you’re playing quarterback at this level and you aren’t going to spend the time to study and increase your knowledge of the game — you are not going to be successful. All of our guys in that room have those qualities. That’s one.

“We have a talented group as far as passers are concerned. The guys are naturally accurate, we have size in the room, they have really good arms, we’re trying to get them to make quicker decisions when the defense is most out of position. They are good men, they don’t get in trouble, they are on opt of their situations. They are mature guys. I think all of those guys have a level of trustworthiness that will continue to grow.”

While only one quarterback is expected to be the starter (no rotating likely to happen this year), Austin talked about the ability for his room to compete, but also be a good teammate while waiting for an opportunity.

“It’s not easy, but at the end of the day, it’s still the ultimate team game. You can have a balance between striving to be the guy and the starter, and to have success individually, but also be a great teammate, if that’s not working out. Some individuals understand that balance because it comes down to maturity, and it comes down to an individual’s heart. It’s a balance that you can strike. When another player is on the field in your position, you should support him.

“What it comes down to is the team winning, this is where Coach Freeze is so great. He helps them understand that the team is bigger than them. They need to be a part of something bigger than themselves. All the guys that I’ve coached that have had great success at quarterback, had that. They care more about the team than individual stats. They are about winning. I think our guys in the room, although they want individual success, they want to be the starter and believe they are the ones that can help us win, they need to trust the process. They need to trust their coaches and trust the head coach, and unselfishly build into the guy that is out there playing.”

Auburn clearly has upgraded talent at the receiver position. Is it enough to make a big difference this fall? Austin believes so.

“We’re always in a constant state of improvement. I believe it’s going to help a lot. Our talent level at receiver is a lot higher at this point. We’re going to rely on a couple of young guys to produce, but they have the talent level to produce. The moves up front are going to help us. It builds into the overall confidence of each individual player, but collectively the offense, where Payton trusts what’s going on in front of him more. That should create a calmer atmosphere from thinking through his decisions than maybe he did last year.”

Hank Brown certainly turned a lot of heads with his performance during mop-up duty in the bowl game. Brown looked confident, which is no surprise to Austin, who recruited him at Liberty and knows his personality and game very well.

“Hank is doing well. I recruited Hank for a while because I recruited him at Liberty. Hank is a very confident young man. Don’t let his demeanor fool you. He’s as humble a person as you’ll ever be around. Hank gets it. Hank is calm. The thing that I told Coach Freeze over and over again, I watched Hank in really big games in high school, he had a task master in Trent Dilfer there that taught him sell and did a good job with him. Hank always played better when the lights were on. Some guys are practice players and not as much come game time, others are the opposite. Hank is the opposite. Hank always played his best game when it mattered most and the team he was facing was a tougher opponent. I was drawn to that and his demeanor.

“What Trent put on his plate as a high school quarterback, most high school quarterbacks aren’t put in that environment. He was conditioned emotionally and mentally more as a high school player to make the transfer to the next level than what you particularly see. That’s what you saw manifest in that game. It was freezing cold in that game and I think he threw like eight balls. I walked over to him before he went into the game and said hey, you’ve been siting all day long, you want to warm up? He said, ‘no coach, I’m good.’ He went into the game and did what he did. That’s him. That’s his demeanor. It served him well in his career so far.”

And lastly, we talked about freshman Walker White.

“He does not. Similar to our other guys, he’s confident. All our guys are super confident, but Walker is a really good person. That also comes out. You can have a confident humility, if that makes sense. An arrogant confidence that is completely inwardly-focused is what is detrimental. Our guys don’t have that. Walker has a confident humility. He wants to compete and be the guy, but do the other guys. He’s got great tools, great size, great arm, really accurate. He has a surprising recall for a brand-new offense, new terminology, his recall is better than I was anticipating. Sometimes when you get a lot thrown at you in a short period of time, recall becomes the issue. He has that.”