Auburn football news: Redshirt freshman QB Hank Brown reportedly starts against New Mexico

According to multiple reports, Auburn redshirt freshman quarterback Hank Brown is set to start the first game of his college career on Saturday night when the Tigers face the New Mexico Lobos at home at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Justin Hokanson of On3 Sports was the first to report the change.

The shakeup in Auburn's starting lineup comes a week after Payton Thorne, the Tigers' original starting quarterback, threw four interceptions in last week's surprise loss to the Cal Golden Bears.

“After watching the film, there's no way we could play that poorly at that position,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said of the quarterback situation during the SEC coaches' conference call on Wednesday.

During his press conference on Monday, Freeze was peppered with questions about the quarterback position and pointed out that Thorne has been extremely consistent in training and preparation.

However, as the loss to Cal showed, this was not always reflected on game day.

In his first year on the Plains after transferring from Michigan State, Thorne threw for 1,755 yards, 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

In the second games of the 2023 season, Thorne has completed 487 yards, five touchdowns, and four interceptions.

Freeze was obviously unhappy with Thorne's performance in Week 2 and left open the possibility of a change at the quarterback position before Auburn's Week 3 game against New Mexico.

After Brown was named the Tigers' backup quarterback shortly before Auburn's season opener, all signs pointed to the redshirt freshman being the man the Tigers would turn to should Freeze decide to make a change.

“Hank is going to be the backup first and foremost,” Freeze said on Aug. 19. “He's just, if you watch all the reps, man, he's been really, really good at throwing the football in camp. He's thrown some really good balls.”

Since arriving at Auburn in June 2023, Brown has only played in two games: last year's Music City Bowl in his hometown of Nashville and Auburn's season opener against Alabama A&M.

In those two appearances, Brown completed 10 of 14 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns.

After graduating from Lipscomb Academy, where he played for current UAB head coach Trent Dilfer, Brown was rated a three-star quarterback by 247Sports before joining the Tigers.