Hugh Freeze addresses ‘uncertainty’ surrounding Auburn’s quarterback situation

In his first offseason as the head coach at Auburn, Hugh Freeze dealt with a quarterback battle. In it, he ultimately named Payton Thorne the starter for Week 1 against UMass. However, both Thorne and Robby Ashford played, stirring up more questions about the position.

On Monday, Freeze made an appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show, where he spoke about the uncertainty surrounding the quarterback position. In particular, he spoke about the possibility of continuing to play both quarterbacks.

“I thought they both played to their strengths and did what they do well,” Hugh Freeze said. “I know that you can’t keep doing just the same things over and over again if you do rotate quarterbacks, so we’ve got to be smart with that, and how that looks from week to week, I’m really uncertain, Paul. Truthfully, we’ll formulate the best gameplan we can for our team and I’ve said from the beginning.”

Between Payton Thorn and Robby Ashford, Freeze sees things he likes in each of them. Thorne is going to be the better passer while Ashford is a special athlete.

“I think Payton has the best understanding. He’s the most accurate passer we have currently. But Robby Ashford, I don’t know if I’ve ever coached an athlete quite as good as he is at this position, and he gives us a chance to win games when he gets his touches and we’ve got to figure out week to week what that looks like.”

At this point, Paul Finebaum asked Hugh Freeze what he’s uncertain about, in particular. As he explained, it comes down to being able to scheme for them. In particular, he knows using Ashford properly is important.

“Well, I guess the uncertainty is not about them. It’s, can I formulate a plan with our offensive staff where it’s not so predictable if you do play two,” Freeze said.

“That gets a little hairy probably because you want to lean toward — obviously Robby, I think he can throw it. So, we’ve got to make sure that’s part of his packages and we’re not just always asking him to run the football. He’s extraordinarily gifted at that but the teams we’re gonna play, that you know we have to play, that’s not gonna work if we’re not at least balanced when both are in there.”

Paul Finebaum on why he feels great about Auburn

After dominating UMass in Week 1, Paul Finebaum feels great about Auburn going forward this season.

“I felt great, and I think everyone else did too. It was like Auburn had shut down for two years, and this was the first game back, since 2020. It’s truly remarkable, how different it feels talking about Auburn today, than — really, I mentioned the two years of [Bryan] Harsin, but even the last year or two of Gus [Malzahn] were depressing. You knew things were coming undone, you just didn’t know when. Again, he’s got a long way to go, but he has people buying in. He’s getting recruits like crazy. I feel a transformation. I know the temptation is to go deep into the history books, but it does feel a little bit like 40 years ago, with Pat Dye. He took over a beaten program, he’s building it, he’s getting people enthusiastic, he’s landing big recruits,” Finebaum said.

“He’s going to punch — big punches down the road. This team will be somebody, it’s not supposed to. Will it make a run? I don’t think so, but it’s going to be a fun rollercoaster ride to be on.”

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