Hugh Freeze blamed Payton Thorne for a failed fourth down attempt during Auburn’s loss to Georgia on Saturday. The quarterback offered a sharp rebuttal to his head coach’s account of what happened.
Things are not going well on the Plains!
First and foremost, the Tigers are 2-4 through the first six games of the 2024 college football season. They finished with a losing record last year. Freeze is not living up to expectations. He’s not winning.
To make matters worse, Freeze refuses to take accountability and repeatedly lobs his own players under the bus. Nothing that goes wrong is ever his fault, dating back to his time at Ole Miss and even before.
Freeze recently tried to defend his criticism of Auburn players. In doing so, the 55-year-old threw his backup tight end to the wolves. It was the perfect summation of how he operates as a head coach.
That was last week. This week’s dialogue is even more uncomfortable because the players are fighting back. More specifically, starting quarterback Payton Thorne is fighting back.
The Tigers failed to convert a 4th-and-1 during the fourth quarter against the Bulldogs.
❌❌❌❌ = Turnover on downs!
— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) October 5, 2024
📺 ABC #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/q9FTkEaBbn
Freeze was asked about the bizarre play call after the game. He, once again, put responsibility for the failure on somebody else. Thorne allegedly checked out of the original call.
"He absolutely didn't go with what we had called…we've got to coach better to where that's really not an option in that moment in time." – Hugh Freeze on Payton Thorne's decision to keep the ball on 4th and 1. https://t.co/QBJTwOTaFS pic.twitter.com/1VM9tOJK95
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) October 6, 2024
Although Freeze pointed fingers at his signal-caller, his signal-caller isn’t having any of it. Thorne tried to clear his name during an interview with The Next Round on Tuesday and flipped the script.
While the head coach blames him for the failed fourth down, he blames the head coach. Thorne stated that he “did not check any play,” which directly contradicts Freeze.
“I won’t get too much into it. I could explain what happened but I don’t think that would help their team so I’ll keep that one in-house.
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) October 8, 2024
𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆…” Payton Thorne on Auburn’s 4th & 1 play call vs Georgia pic.twitter.com/Fwz0BCOuMb
Freeze blames Thorne. Thorne rejected the blame.
We may never know the full truth, because divergent perspectives typically find common ground somewhere in the middle. However, Hugh Freeze has some explaining to do.