For Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers, it’s bounce-back week after suffering an unexpected and disappointing early-season loss to the Cal Golden Bears last weekend.
During Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference, Freeze told reporters that he and his team were looking forward to an opportunity to “redeem” themselves, particularly on the offensive side of the football.
The Auburn offense committed five turnovers in the Cal game and could never claw its way out of a losing fight with field position.
Meanwhile, while the Auburn defense made proper adjustments as the game unfolded, it didn’t have its best stuff early in the game, allowing Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza to play the first quarter of his life.
All that said, the Tigers approach Saturday’s date with the New Mexico Lobos with plenty of questions that’ll need to be answered before Auburn turns the page to SEC play.
Here are some storylines were watching:
Is Payton Thorne still Auburn’s QB1 after last week’s performance?
In last week’s turnover fest against Cal, Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne was responsible for four of the Tigers’ five turnovers as he tossed an interception in the first half and a trio of picks in the second half.
Unsurprisingly, the fifth-year quarterback’s performance has sparked controversy — and a simple one at that: Should Thorne continue to jog out onto the field as Auburn’s starting quarterback?
Asked about Thorne’s performance immediately after the Cal game, Freeze deflected the questions until he had an opportunity to study the film.
Come his Monday press conference, Freeze was again peppered with quarterback-related questions. And while Freeze gave some straightforward answers, he spent some time beating around the bush on some questions.
Essentially, while not every single interception was, in totality, Thorne’s fault, Freeze was unhappy with his quarterback’s performance, adding that he had a reel of 15 plays that weren’t executed correctly from the quarterback position.
Freeze added that Thorne is the “highest performer in practice in preparation,” while is what led him to get the starting nod to begin with.
However, there’s a mutual understanding that those tendencies must have carryover in games and if there’s no carryover against the Lobos (whose defense ranks No. 131 out of 133 FBS teams in total defense), well, the that won’t be a good sign.
Asked on Wednesday for an update on the quarterback situation, Freeze said “there’s a very, a very short leash on us playing as poorly as we did in certain moments in that game at that position.”
Should Freeze and the Tigers opt to go a different direction under center, all eyes will turn to redshirt freshman Hank Brown, who was named Auburn’s backup quarterback earlier this fall.
Can Auburn’s defense get out to a quicker start and slow New Mexico’s roll?
Again, the Auburn defense didn’t have its best stuff early in the game against Cal as the Tigers allowed the Golden Bears to tally 222 total yards of offense and a pair of touchdowns.
At the root of Auburn’s defensive struggles was its thin secondary as Cal’s quarterback went 19-for-21 through the air in the first half.
Fortunately, the Tigers’ defense was able to settle in as the game unfolded.
Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be enough for Auburn to pull out the win against Cal.
Moving forward, however, the Tigers will look to get a faster start out of their defense. And that starts this Saturday against a New Mexico offense that Freeze has referred to as “dangerous” after going “toe-to-toe” with No. 20 Arizona.
Through two games, the New Mexico offense, which is piloted by dual threat quarterback Devon Dampier, has averaged 397 yards and 35 points per game.
“We’re going to have to do a good job of containing the quarterback and then also playing the long ball because I’m pretty sure they’re going to feel like they have opportunities on that,” said Auburn defensive back Keionte Scott. “So I’m very excited for this week and our defense and our team in general to get that taste out of our mouth.”
Will the Tigers lean on the run game more this week?
Earlier this week, both offensive lineman Jeremiah Wright and running back Damari Alston expressed that they were thinking they’d run the football more last week against Cal.
Of course, as the game progressed and the situation worsened for Auburn, running the football became less and less of an option.
This week, however, all signs point to the possibility of Auburn’s stable of running backs having a larger role against New Mexico.
With the Tigers approaching Saturday’s game down a starting offensive lineman in Izavion Miller (hip), they’ve been forced to do some more shuffling, which doesn’t exactly spell success after Auburn struggled in pass protection last week.
That, paired with Freeze’s plan to carry a simpler, more condensed playbook into the New Mexico game, points to the likelihood of Auburn leaning into the run game a bit more on Saturday.
“I want us to run the ball more,” Wright said on Tuesday. “We came out against a tough team like Cal and didn’t run the ball as much as I wanted to or the team wanted to.
“This week I feel like we’ll run the ball more, be physical, knock people off the ball and just show people what we’re capable of doing.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-13 00:00:00
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