Fired former Auburn head coach catches stray from analyst
As OutKick’s Glenn Guilbeau was addressing Payton Thorne’s commitment to the Auburn football program, Bryan Harsin came up — and Guilbeau didn’t take it easy on the fired former Tigers head coach, calling the quarterback situation he left behind for new head coach Hugh Freeze a “disaster.”
“First-year coach Hugh Freeze basically did not have a real starting quarterback after replacing the disaster that was coach Bryan Harsin following the 2022 season,” Guilbeau said.
The OutKick writer’s comments can be read as a direct shot to incumbent starter Robby Ashford and redshirt second-year signal-caller Holden Geriner, though going through a coaching transition in each’s first year on the Plains certainly makes things more difficult for everyone.
Analyst suggests Auburn football landed Payton Thorne with NIL offer
Guilbeau seemed to suggest that the Auburn football brain trust offered the Michigan State transfer Thorne a lucrative NIL offer to lock in the graduate transfer, which is certainly a possibility in this current iteration of college football free agency.
“Freeze had been looking for someone like Thorne for some time, and Thorne likely would have remained the starter had he stayed at Michigan State,” Guilbeau wrote. “And Thorne did not enter the portal until last Sunday – the last day to do so. Perhaps a lucrative Name, Image & Likeness deal happened.”
Thorne comes to the Plains having seen a sharp descent from the near-top of the Big Ten to the bottom half of the conference in his last two seasons at Michigan State, and he now has the chance to help lead a more passionate fanbase in the opposite direction under a new head coach looking to prove himself.
Freeze had told anyone that would listen that not just any transfer was going to join his first Tigers team on the staff, and he similarly said he wouldn’t just hand anyone the job. Still, with Ashford, Geriner, and the recently transferred TJ Finley not showing capable of grasping the starting role, Thorne appears to be a lock to lead Freeze and Philip Montgomery’s offense out on Pat Dye Field on September 2.