Auburn Tigers News: Payton Thorne focused on team captain role, Hugh Freeze on defense

In today's edition of Auburn Tigers News, former QB1 Payton Thorne switches his focus to team captain duties and Hugh Freeze reviews the defensive performance

It was a tough week for Auburn football quarterback Payton Thorne. The fifth-year senior was set to be the returning starter for the Tigers this season, but after two games in Jordan-Hare Stadium, head coach Hugh Freeze made the decision to bench him in favor of redshirt-freshman Hank Brown.

Despite being demoted, both Brown and Freeze sang Thorne's praises in terms of being a good leader and teammate and fulfilling his role as team captain.

"It's special, it is," Brown said, per Auburn Undercover. "It's really special. Payton's such a good dude; I couldn't say enough good things about him. It tells me a lot about his character and who he is as a person — the fact that he's out there helping me out, guiding me with his experience and all that he has."

Hugh Freeze reviews the defensive performance

While Hank Brown breathed life into the Auburn football team this weekend, every time the defense hit the field they seemed to suck it right back away. Despite holding the New Mexico offense to their season low in points, there were still plenty of problems.

"I thought we were not very good on defense," Freeze said postgame, per Auburn Undercover. "And I think (defensive coordinator DJ Durkin) would agree. We're not playing the ball well. We had too many penalties. Didn't contain (Dampier) very well, and people got behind us and they converted too many long plays, long distances."

There was a lot of shuffling in the secondary with cornerback Kayin Lee out this weekend, and the results were less than great.

"We're going to have to — we'll have to have a better plan and play better, for sure, next week," Freeze said.