Robby Ashford seemingly shaded former Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin following the Tigers’ A-Day spring game on April 8 — claiming that he wasn’t getting coached “as good as (he) could’ve been” during the 2022 season, his first on the Plains.
“Don’t want to say it in a bad way, I don’t feel like I was getting coached as good as I could’ve been,” Ashford told ABC 33/40 News when asked the differences between Harsin and new Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze.
Ashford would later say that his mental state, as well as his teammates’, was not in the best place. “When your mental’s good, it clears a whole lot of things,” Ashford added (h/t 247Sports). “Definitely last year I would say my mental wasn’t in the best spot. It was just a rough year. I feel like really nobody’s (mental state) was, but now we gave got a fresh new start. I have cleared my head. I just feel better playing. I just feel like I am having fun.”
Hugh Freeze saves compliments for Robby Ashford amid Auburn football QB battle
Freeze sent a strong message about the Auburn football quarterback battle following a stormy Saturday afternoon in Jordan-Hare Stadium on April 8 — noting the improvements of Ashford but pointing out the good and bad in both redshirt freshman and T.J. Finley.
“You know, I think Robby got better,” Freeze said of Ashford. “He’s really been fun to coach. And I think he’s trying to change some of the things that may have caused — at least me concern — being the quarterback and the leader, whether it be body language or ball security or your demeanor in general, the way you talk, the way you talk to your teammates. I don’t know if anybody has really challenged him like I did this spring with that. I think you saw today that he’s capable of making some plays. Thought he threw a really good seam ball in those conditions.”
The talk of Geriner and Finley struck a much different tone.
“I thought Holden threw some good balls,” Freeze prefaced before saying, “He missed a couple of reads on some RPOs, I think. T.J. did, too. But it’s been that way all spring — some real positives and some inconsistencies the next day. We’ve still got time to help them improve, hopefully.”
It remains to be seen where Freeze stands in the Tigers’ quarterback competition, but Ashford may have just taken the lead (or extended his previously existing one) following A-Day.