Hugh Freeze is not making any long-term decisions on his depth chart just yet, having trolled Auburn football reporters with a press release that had an "or" after every single player. When it comes to the receiver position, though, he has made one: there will be a "free rotation" indefinitely.
That's the best news imaginable for Tiger fans hoping to see the Freeze Four quarter of Cam Coleman, Perry Thompson, Bryce Cain, and Malcolm Simmons get extended looks during the 2024 season.
"Yeah, it's a pretty free rotation at that spot," Freeze said (h/t Auburnundercover). "I want them fresh. If someone runs a deep, deep, deep route and it's incomplete, or there's not an explosive play, I'd expect the next guy up, so we're ready to snap the ball and are fresher.
"I don't like the idea of a guy running a streak route, and it's a deep incompletion, and he's running back to the line. I've never been a fan of that at all. I do think we're at a spot right now where, again, they're gonna have to go out there and do it. In the mock game Saturday, it was freely rotating among those top six guys. Still a few too many MAs (missed assignments) by the younger guys."
The Freeze Four is Auburn football's biggest selling point to transfer portal QBs in the future
Payton Thorne is out of eligibility after the 2024 season, and if Hank Brown and Holden Geriner decide they don't want to keep waiting for their opportunity, and Walker White -- and a potential 2025 commit like Deuce Knight -- still isn't ready to take the reins in 2025, the QB position could be one Freeze has to focus on in the portal next year.
That makes the Freeze Four the greatest recruitment tool at the QB position.
Given that 2024 is Rivaldo Fairweather, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, and Robert Lewis's final year of eligibility, the in-state quartet is Freeze's proof of concept to show the transfer portal's biggest names.
Them getting snaps is great news in the present and for the future.