Mailbag 152 from Aubserver: So, what will Auburn do as QB going forward?
This week: Hugh Freeze’s Year 1 grade, the top basketball lineups, SEC predictions, colors, and the natty are all things that the gateway needs.
Greetings and welcome to 2024’s first mailbag. Greetings and welcome to the SEC basketball season. And welcome back to Auburn football’s never-ending offseason news cycle.
I’ll be off to Arkansas for Auburn’s SEC opener versus Arkansas by the time most of you read this, and it will be my first visit at Bud Walton Arena. I’ve been wanting to see “The Basketball Palace of Mid-America” for a very long time, so I’m excited. (In addition, I will have seen every SEC basketball arena this season—just in time for Texas and Oklahoma to join—after visiting Mizzou Arena later this season.)
Less than a week separates Auburn’s 2023 football team from its conclusion in the Music City Bowl, and it appears as though significant changes may be made over the summer to help the team get to where it wants to be on the field.
As usual, both sports will occupy The Observer’s time and fill our mailbag to capacity.
We are happy to have you along for the ride for another year. Come on, let’s go.
In our line of work, things move quickly. Hugh Freeze declared less than a month ago that Auburn was “all-in” on developing around Payton Thorne and the current quarterback room for 2024 when he was behind a podium.
And then there was the Music City Bowl. Passing for 84 yards (3.1 YPA), one touchdown, and a pick-six, Thorne completed 13 of 27 (48.1%) passes. Thorne completed less than 50% of his throws with a YPA of 5.0 against FBS opponents that had a winning record in 2023. This rating was the lowest in the SEC and outside of the top 100 nationally among qualified quarterbacks. Auburn lost all seven of those contests.
In the fourth quarter, with the game well within reach, true freshman Hank Brown had his best throwing performance of the game, going 7-9 for 132 yards and leading the Tigers into the red zone twice in his debut. During the news conference following the game, a question concerning Brown and the quarterback room’s future was raised. Freeze didn’t avoid it at all.
Regarding the quarterbacks, Freeze stated, “It’s wide-open.” “.. I’m always assessing the players, the staff, everything. And those are the actions we should take if we discover that my assessment was incorrect. Then, in order to improve, we must shift course and reconsider. For spring practice, that position should be fascinating, for sure.
Fast-forward to Monday, when national reporters at On3 and 247Sports published allegations that Auburn had reached out to Washington State transfer quarterback Cam Ward. But less than an hour later, Ward declared he will join the NFL Draft rather than accept all the offers from teams vying for him in the portal.
One day later, there were rumors that Kaidon Salter, the starting quarterback for Liberty and someone Freeze recruited to the team following his dismissal from Tennessee in 2021, would soon be able to access the site. He officially joined 1,000-yard Flames receiver C.J. Daniels on Thursday morning.
