Auburn football reporter vociferously defends Hugh Freeze, Payton Thorne for 4th down gaffe against Georgia

On3's Justin Hokanson repeatedly rebuked Auburn football fans who felt Hugh Freeze gave a non-answer regarding Payton Thorne's infamous failed fourth-down play-call against Georgia down 21-10 that essentially closed the door on their comeback.

Freeze said it was a "whole, long story" while speaking to the media on October 9. That quote wasn't good enough for many. Several fans on Twitter questioned why Freeze wouldn't directly address whether or not Thorne went rogue on the poor defensive read that resulted in a sack, a subsequent turnover on downs, and the end of any earnest upset attempt during the 31-13 loss Between the Hedges.

Thorne has contradicted Freeze previously and vice versa in the days following the loss. Freeze attempted to reverse the PR trajectory.

Hokanson then attempted to explain why Freeze was right and that it was an X's and O's miscommunication; not the opposing theories many shared on social media.

"Freeze's comments today further confirm what I've been saying about Thorne's decision," Hokanson prefaced before saying, "In summary: Lots of miscommunication going back into practice last week and spilling over into Saturday regarding this.

"I’ve gone over this IN DETAIL on our message board more times than I can count since Sunday. It is a long story. Nobody went rogue. Nobody lied. LOT of miscommunication is the basics."

Of course, certain reporters will always take the pro-Auburn side and others take the anti-Auburn side. Freeze makes things more polarizing. Hokanson tends to defend the program more often than not, but the issue being a football one -- and not a disrespecting the coach's play-call one -- checks out.

Even still, that's a problem.

Whether in alignment or not, Auburn football should be better

Thorne struggling so much in what is essentially a second season under Freeze's play-calling, minus a few weeks where Philip Montgomery was running the show in 2023 and not getting the job done, is a problem. A big one.

The SEC is a dramatically different landscape in 2024. Anyone can seemingly beat anyone. Besides Mississippi State. And so far, Auburn.

Vanderbilt, Missouri, and Kentucky all own big wins this season. All are far more significant wins than New Mexico and Alabama A&M. All three may be the favorites when AU week arrives on their schedules. Texas A&M and Alabama are top-15 teams as of this writing, so same deal there.

If QB1 is having issues running the offense, how will this team put a winning product on the field against a loaded conference with no "gimmes" on the schedule?

This nightmare season has to be the end of Tiger fans' suffering for Freeze's sake.