(Photo by Matthew Maxey/Icon Sportswire)
The Auburn Tigers are in a rough spot, sitting at 1-1 after a disastrous loss to the California Golden Bears after many, even including Nick Saban, expected them to be among the most improved teams in the SEC.
Now, it’s back to the drawing board for Hugh Freeze after he said it’s become clear that his team was not nearly as far along as he had hoped in the process of rebuilding the program. Coming out of Saturday, however, one thing has become painfully obvious: Auburn has a quarterback problem.
It’s time for Freeze to admit that the Payton Thorne experiment has failed. The former Michigan State quarterback who Freeze brought in from the portal prior to the 2023 season has had some poor performances in an Auburn uniform, but Saturday may have just been the worst of them all.
Completing just 14 of his 27 attempts, Thorne tossed four interceptions and got away with a fifth while throwing for just 165 yards. Through Thorne’s 15 games as Auburn’s starting quarterback, he has thrown for over 200 yards against an FBS opponent once.
Last year, much of the blame fell on the receiver group and the improved weapons were one of the only reasons Thorne got the chance to start this season. But guys were open on Saturday in Jordan-Hare, Thorne just wasn’t hitting them. And often he was throwing it to the other team.
It’s unacceptable and Auburn deserves better.
Now, it’s also possible that as bad as Thorne was on Saturday, he may still be the best quarterback currently on the roster. Freeze has said repeatedly that he has been the best quarterback on the practice field, but for whatever reason it is simply not translating to game day.
Redshirt freshman Hank Brown is the backup and showed some flashes in the bowl game last year during another horrendous performance from Thorne. It may be time for Brown to get a legitimate chance. Even if it goes poorly, it can’t go much worse than things went this past Saturday.
Freeze said this week that Brown will get reps in practice, but who is going to be taking the first snaps against New Mexico this week remains to be seen. But it’s worth keeping an eye on The Plains to see if Freeze makes the move that seems obvious to everyone else.
