Fly War Eagle
Fansided

Auburn analysts confident in star transfer despite Week 1 struggles

By Andrew Hughes

The staff of Auburn Daily has confidence in a star Auburn football transfer despite his Week 1 struggles against the UMass defense Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
The staff of Auburn Daily has confidence in a star Auburn football transfer despite his Week 1 struggles against the UMass defense Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

The staff of Auburn Daily remains confident in starting Auburn football quarterback Payton Thorne despite some Week 1 struggles in a blowout win over UMass — struggles that certainly didn’t keep the Tigers transfer’s numbers down too much, but struggles that could be amplified in games against superior competition where the margins for error will be far lesser. Ultimately, it’s not that Thorne’s stock dropped, but that the seeds of worry were planted.

“His stock did not drop significantly,” Auburn Daily prefaced before saying, “Nobody’s did. But Thorne and the passing game is going to take time to work. Freeze had a few moments on the sideline where he was clearly upset with Thorne’s execution. There were some miscommunications that led to missed touchdowns. He was very accurate when he was on the same page with his receivers. Thorne will get comfortable and Auburn will be fine with him at quarterback.”

Thorne had a 148 QBR in the 10/17, one-touchdown performance on September 2, taking a backseat to Robby Ashford and his TD hat trick in the scoring department and in the red zone in general. Still, the fast-paced nature of a Thorne-led hurry-up offense had the Tigers humming in a way they haven’t in a while; featuring the kind of motion offense check-downs that Gus Malzahn was able to execute well during his Auburn football tenure.

Two-QB Auburn football offense could be key to running the best offense

It’s fair to say that neither Thorne nor Ashford are the kind of quarterbacks who could single-handedly lead their team to a championship while having a Heisman season. Not yet, at least.

But together, they cover for each other’s weaknesses; in Ashford’s case, having an arm that could make the offense unpredictable when facing a long field and in Thorne’s case, pounding the ball in at the goal-line due to his slighter frame.

It’s often said that when you have two possible starting QBs, you have none, but AU is in a different boat. Thorne is the clear top option given how quickly he moves the change, and Ashford has the role, though executes it differently, of a fullback back when the sport featured the position more prominently.

Home/Auburn Football