Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze is reportedly debating stepping away from QB Payton Thorne ahead of the Tigers' November 16 matchup against ULM.
Freeze mentioned the "big picture" when discussing his reasoning.
“Payton’s played pretty solid, but at the same time you start thinking big picture and well, that’s a tough quandary for you as a coach when you start thinking big picture as opposed to one of your players that really hasn’t done anything wrong,” Freeze said.
This seems to insinuate that Freeze, despite what he’d like to do, has been forced to debate stepping away from Thorne, a quarterback who has been statistically decent this year despite a rough start.
The issue stands as follows: “ certainly aren’t winning,” according to Freeze. Despite Thorne’s statistical competence, he remains 2-5 on the season as a starter. Many speculate Freeze is grappling with the potential reality of needing to cut losses and look to next season, which would mean Brown would get the nod against ULM.
Some speculate this change could be Freeze’s way of “cutting losses” and attempting to prepare for the next season, in which Brown will almost certainly see the majority of starts at QB.
This isn’t a new situation, either. Thorne has already been scratched from the starting spot once this season following a four-interception loss against Cal, with Hank Brown starting the following game at home against Arkansas. This didn’t help much though. After a 72-yard first half with three interceptions, Brown was benched in favor of Thorne, who’s only had three interceptions in the five games since.
Coach Freeze has a difficult decision ahead of him -- and all eyes will look to said decision ahead of Auburn’s November 16th matchup.