Hugh Freeze is to blame for Auburn's quarterback situation

After Auburn's 24-14 loss to Arkansas at home on Saturday, a game in which the Tigers' quarterbacks combined for four interceptions, said head coach Hugo Freeze was speechless.

And what did he do? He pointed the finger at his players and threw them under the wheels.

“I know there are free players and I know we're going to run the ball,” an angry Freeze said after the game. “We have to find a player who won't throw the ball to the other team.”

Remind me: whose job is it to find these players?

Freeze has a right to be frustrated. Auburn had chances, Arkansas on Saturday, but the Tigers were largely thwarted by terrible turnovers. And this isn't the first Saturday that Auburn has suffered from inconsistent – er, bad – quarterback play. And this isn't the first year, either.

But nobody feels sorry for you, Hugh. This quarterback problem didn't just fall out of the sky. It's been pretty obvious for some time.

His postgame comments were particularly egregious since Freeze said in May that he couldn't bring himself to spend $1 million on a quarterback. Perhaps there wasn't a quarterback he felt was worth that money. There weren't many obvious, no-brainer options in the portal. There were Riley Leonard, DJ Uiagalelei, Cam Ward and others. Some of these guys, like Ward, play better than others.

But you'd think Freeze would have spent the money on someone, right? You'd think he'd even overspend on improving the room because someone new had to be better than this one.

No. He doubled down on the same employees he blamed on Saturday.

“I believe in our quarterbacks,” Freeze said in May on Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic’s radio show at the Regions Tradition in Birmingham. “I believe in Kent Austin. I believe that if you have the right parts at hand Payton (Thorne)that we can succeed. I think you've seen some glimpses of that. I don't think we've had a really comprehensive package around him.”

This decision was also made by Freeze.

Even though the whole country could see that Thorne was not going to win the Heisman Trophy that season, Freeze stood by him. We weren't so sure, Hank Brownbut Freeze needs to know who he has on his roster and what their potential is. Brown is still quite young and his story is not yet over, but one thing is abundantly clear: Thorne is not good enough for Auburn to get the win it expects, and Brown is not ready.

Against Arkansas, Brown, a former three-star prospect from Nashville in the class of 2023, threw three interceptions in the first half, including one in the end zone, where he double-clutched the ball and threw it to the defense.

“It was terrible to watch,” Freeze said of the first half.

To start the second half, Freeze went back to Thorne, whom he benched after a loss to Cal two weeks ago. Thorne performed better than Brown, throwing two touchdowns, but the duo's four interceptions won't win many SEC games.

“Obviously we are not training well enough and we need to find young men who will do what they are trained to do,” Freeze said.

Auburn fans are listening. It's heartbreaking to hear Thorne explain that he's advising Brown not to use his phone for a while. Tigers fans are on edge. Freeze has added fuel to the fire of that anger.

The frustrating thing about this whole scenario is that Freeze understands as well as anyone what an elite squad in the SEC should look like. Auburn's former coach, Bryan Harsindidn't. Harsin thought he would outperform coaches like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, nearly torpedoing the Tigers' talent level.

Freeze had no easy mess to clean up. And he did an admirable job recruiting, putting Auburn in a position to attract recruits that Harsin didn't even try to court. Freeze took the five-star wide receiver Cam Coleman in the 2024 recruiting cycle and was able to sign transfer KeAndre Lambert-Smith (who managed 156 yards as a receiver against the Razorbacks), despite not resolving the quarterback issues.

He did some really good things in rebuilding the roster, but for some reason he had a blind spot when it came to the quarterback department.

Although Saturday and the loss to Cal were frustrating, Freeze can only blame himself.