Hugh Freeze doesn't get Auburn football fans' hopes up with 2024 expectations
Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze talked to the media about the Tigers' potential for the upcoming season
2024 needs to be a big season for the Auburn football program. After three straight years of losing seasons, changing coaches, and dealing with disappointment after disappointment, it's time for head coach Hugh Freeze and the Tigers to show some progress.
The stage is certainly set for the Tigers to make some noise this season after bringing in a top-10 recruiting class and picking up plenty of transfers from the portal. However, the Tigers notably did not bring in a transfer quarterback and will run it back with Payton Thorne, who is somewhat of a question mark heading into the 2024 season.
With a new offensive coordinator, Freeze's increased involvement in game-planning, and the renovation of the Tigers' wide receivers corps, will Thorne be able to step up to the plate?
“I’m a believer in Payton,” Freeze told the media, per On3 Sports. “Obviously, I know that, you know, quarterbacks, they’re either going to take praise or criticism, there’s nowhere in between. He certainly has had his good and bad moments, but I do believe, with better pieces around him, that he has the ability to be a great leader, and a really solid quarterback in this league."
Though Freeze believes Thorne will look better this season, he is also mindful that a lot of the talent on this team is younger guys like 5-star wide receiver Cam Coleman. His message about Auburn football making the college football playoffs this year, per Auburn Undercover, basically reads 'don't get your hopes up.'
"It's too early for me to say," Freeze said when asked whether Auburn can make the CFP in 2024,via The Next Round. "I'm not real big on setting unrealistic goals. Unrealistic goals always lead to frustration.
"I think we are going to be better, but I just don't know how quickly our young kids will translate to competing at this level, and we are going to have to play our young kids. I think they're really good. I think they're really good players. Are they ready in year one to roll out there and compete in a way that puts us in the playoffs? I don't know. It's hard to say. But I do expect us to be better."