Auburn has to thaw its passing game under Hugh Freeze.
Matt Zemek, 16powers.com.
Hugh Freeze won’t be able to defeat Nick Saban this season. That’s because Saban has retired from coaching. When Saban and Freeze did coach in the SEC a decade ago, Freeze was able to defeat Saban multiple times at Ole Miss. Now at Auburn, Freeze is trying to reestablish himself as one of the big dogs in SEC coaching.
When we recall the Hugh Freeze teams at Ole Miss 10 years ago – teams which made life difficult for Saban – they had toughness on defense and could certainly stand up to the Crimson Tide (and other top SEC teams) in the trenches. That’s where the foundation was built for Freeze’s success in college football’s most cutthroat conference. However, once Ole Miss proved it could play tough, grown-man football at the line of scrimmage, those Rebel rosters were able to win one-on-one battles on the edges. Ole Miss receivers grabbed 50-50 balls against Alabama’s smaller corners. It wasn’t just power which helped Freeze defeat Saban a decade ago; Ole Miss had size, length and speed as well. The Rebels were able to contain Alabama when they played defense, but they were also able to score when they played offense.
As we move to the present moment and consider Hugh Freeze in his second SEC coaching tenure at Auburn, the toughness and the work ethic are there. We saw Auburn push and test the Georgia Bulldogs last season. We saw Auburn put up a fight against Alabama in the Iron Bowl before “4th and 31” happened in Jordan-Hare Stadium. We saw Hugh Freeze’s teams play with the physicality and determination which brought back that familiar Ole Miss feeling. Something was missing, however, from the larger picture: the skill in the passing game and the potency on the perimeter. Auburn did not have enough of those ingredients to become a next-level team. No one expected Auburn to have those ingredients in 2023, but as we shift to 2024, have the Tigers made real improvements and upgrades to change the conversation and elevate expectations for the program?
It’s hard to say yes.
Hugh Freeze is running it back with Payton Thorne at quarterback. Thorne threw for under 100 yards in five different games last season. He threw for over 200 yards in only two games from 2023. He was not very good. Thorne was a decent quarterback at Michigan State, but nothing special. He never did come across as a high-level quarterback, and it was puzzling that Freeze brought him to the Plains. Nothing he did in 2023 suggested that Auburn’s offense had a high ceiling coming into 2024, or that running it back was the right decision. Yet, Freeze is convinced Thorne can be the guy. Maybe the other additions on the offensive side of the ball are creating a formula for success at Auburn. Freeze did build something special at Ole Miss, contrary to expectations and predictions. Freeze turned Liberty into a big-time winner as well. Freeze has a track record of making pundits look bad. He has a history of exceeding expectations and proving a lot of people wrong. To that extent and within that context, Freeze deserves the benefit of the doubt. However, does Payton Thorne deserve the same?
Auburn might not have the quarterback it needs, but in order for Freeze to double down on Thorne, he definitely needed to give Thorne better wide receivers, and he seems to have done that. KeAndre Lambert-Smith is a high-level transfer from Penn State who could really rev up the Auburn passing game. Other pieces have been brought in as well in the transfer portal to significantly change the composition of the wide receiver room.
The optimistic view of Auburn heading into 2024 is that the problems with the passing game in 2023 were more about the wide receivers not helping out Thorne than anything else. Receivers didn’t make great reads or decisions. They didn’t win as many contested catches as they needed to. They didn’t make big plays in improvisational situations when Thorne was left to fend for himself. There’s no question the Auburn receivers weren’t good in 2023, but were they so bad that Thorne will become an elite quarterback with this new and incoming crop of receivers in 2024? Is it really that simple? It seems that the truth lies in the middle, that both the quarterback and the receivers contributed to Auburn’s problems on offense last season. However, if this really was a receiver problem and minimally a quarterback problem (if at all), then Hugh Freeze might have an Auburn squad which is much closer to the Ole Miss standard than the skeptics are willing to admit.
How tough is the schedule for Auburn this season? In a 16-team SEC with Texas and Oklahoma, there are only so many good teams anyone will avoid in the conference. All things considered, Auburn doesn’t have the toughest possible schedule in the league. The Tigers don’t play LSU, Texas, Tennessee, or Ole Miss. They do get to play Kentucky, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt. Their toughest games are against Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri, Texas A&M, and Alabama. Georgia, Mizzou, and Bama are road games. For Auburn to have a season it can feel reasonably good about, it will be important to win the tough home games on the slate versus Oklahoma and Texas A&M. If Auburn wins those and can handle a road trip to Kentucky, the Tigers should finish 8-4 and leave 2024 thinking they are on their way up in the SEC. Can this team reach that standard of performance? It’s up to Payton Thorne to show everyone that yes, it was the receivers’ fault in 2023. With a new group of pass catchers and with the full faith and trust of Hugh Freeze backing him up, Thorne has a chance to make a loud statement about his own abilities in 2024. If Thorne can handle the heat, Auburn football won’t necessarily match the Hugh Freeze Ole Miss standard, but it will show that the standard is within reach in the near future, be it 2025 or 2026.
