CHF Talks About QB Decisions

[ScotsAU 1,336]

2 hours ago, DAG said:

You have the most 180 degree post I have ever seen of anyone on here lol. 

I still have serious serious concerns over freeze’s in game management. But that doesn’t mean everything he does is bad. I think he has a better eye for talent than any of the coaches we’ve had in this century. Without complete info, we don’t know what his plan is. So I’m not going to hit the panic button on that.

[Mikey 16,615]

2 hours ago, bishoptf said:

I understand that we are not there from a talent perspective but the play calling and the team being flat for certain games better not happen next year..you need to start showing some improvement and IMHO that starts next year.

Agreed. Freeze used up all of his Mulligans with the New Mexico State and Maryland games. Not beating solid, winning SEC teams is one thing. We may not like it but it's at least understandable. Losing to the previously mentioned two is not understandable and there can be no repeats.

[Hank2020 3,207]

6 minutes ago, Mikey said:

Agreed. Freeze used up all of his Mulligans with the New Mexico State and Maryland games. Not beating solid, winning SEC teams is one thing. We may not like it but it's at least understandable. Losing to the previously mentioned two is not understandable and there can be no repeats.

I do not put Maryland game in same light as NMSU. We should ot have looked so poorly against NMSu.

[Mikey 16,615]

11 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

I do not put Maryland game in same light as NMSU. We should ot have looked so poorly against NMSu.

Maryland without their QB is a very concerning loss. Maybe not as bad NMSU but to me,  bad enough to be included in the same context.

[Hank2020 3,207]

3 hours ago, Mikey said:

Maryland without their QB is a very concerning loss. Maybe not as bad NMSU but to me,  bad enough to be included in the same context.

The backups played very good. I would say their QB room was lights out better than ours. We minimize them bc we inherently believe SEC talent is much better when in actuality their players generally played better than ours all year. Just a difference of opinion.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,673]

The truth is somewhere in the middle, like with most things. Hugh definitely reached out to some QB options. Hugh probably didn't push as heavy for some options as Twitter positioned him as doing. 

I think he's trying to let Thorne know he can easily be the starter again, but don't come out there looking like butt or someone else can take your spot. There's really not a big tone difference in his pressers about Thorne these last few months as it was when he was going back and forth with Ashford during the season. 

[Hank2020 3,207]

4 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

The truth is somewhere in the middle, like with most things. Hugh definitely reached out to some QB options. Hugh probably didn't push as heavy for some options as Twitter positioned him as doing. 

I think he's trying to let Thorne know he can easily be the starter again, but don't come out there looking like butt or someone else can take your spot. There's really not a big tone difference in his pressers about Thorne these last few months as it was when he was going back and forth with Ashford during the season. 

I think early on, Freeze thought Ashford was going to come through but finally decided he wasn’t.

[AU120289 379]

1 hour ago, Hank2020 said:

I think early on, Freeze thought Ashford was going to come through but finally decided he wasn’t.

That seems to be par for the course after year one. CHF has been rethinking a lot of things. Let’s hope it translates into substantial improvements across the board, while avoiding NMSU type debacles. 

[GreenTiger 1,006]

It’s all part of the plan 

[AU120289 379]

5 minutes ago, GreenTiger said:

It’s all part of the plan 

That depends on which plan - Ring or Payout. 

[TeamZero77 1,784]

23 hours ago, cbo said:

Freeze has gone back and forth on the QB situation. In mid-December, he basically declared Thorne the starter for next season. After the bowl game, he said "it's wide open."

Freeze had at least one transfer QB on campus in the last month or so. I think he wanted to upgrade the position but was also overly picky about it. 

I remember during our bowl game against Maryland, the announcers mentioned 3 different times during the game that they had talked to Hugh the evening before the game and Hugh had told them that Thorne will be the starter for 2024. Then, like you mentioned, in the postgame presser Hugh said "The QB competition is wide open come spring." But he never mentioned bringing in a portal QB. Then when I listened to his interview wednesday and he mentioned being comfortable with Hank, Walker and Thorne for 2024, I just take his quote of the QB competition being wide open this spring to mean its wide open amongst the QB's we currently have on roster. 

I would like a QB from the portal if he would be a "plug in and play" type QB. But at this point, even if Freeze got a transfer QB, it would be fall camp before they got here I think. And we all saw how important it is for a new QB to go through spring practice. Thorne got here late and it showed because the timing with the WR's seemed off.

[cole256 17,084]

15 hours ago, Sizzle said:

Something I’ve learned over the years is that If you have to keep making excuses for your QB then you don’t have the right guy

All I know I don't care what the people on here try to pull the QB play was horrible, and I remember when we had jf3 and these same guys were ready to run him out of here and he could have produced the same under 100 yard games but would have had more rushing yards and this board went crazy about needing a QB that can throw the ball and I was flabbergasted that people were saying they were content with not adding a QB going into next year.....

Actually these are the same guys that said they were tired of stidham.... But we'll see. I just know I couldn't do it, QB is the most important position I'd damn sure have some clawing and fighting going on for the starting QB. 

Hell that's the only place you would see me coaching. QB. HB and wr don't need a bunch of coaching, they need reps more than anything everyday if you wanted to find me I'd be with that QB group and we'd get better every day. 25 passes and under 100 yards? We are borderline a joke. We will be a joke if that happens again. This year is important for the offense.

[cole256 17,084]

On 2/1/2024 at 10:45 PM, cbo said:

Freeze has gone back and forth on the QB situation. In mid-December, he basically declared Thorne the starter for next season. After the bowl game, he said "it's wide open."

Freeze had at least one transfer QB on campus in the last month or so. I think he wanted to upgrade the position but was also overly picky about it. 

I didn't really get scared until the whole Thorne is the starter thing for next year.... When I heard that I was like what in my Katt Williams voice. That's when I knew something was wrong.

Edited February 3 by cole256

[Ekingau34 3]

2 hours ago, cole256 said:

I didn't really get scared until the whole Thorne is the starter thing for next year.... When I heard that I was like what in my Katt Williams voice. That's when I knew something was wrong.

I remember CHF before the bowl game talking about the state of the program and his strategy for rebuilding. He said year 1 we were so depleted he had to go heavy portal to get able bodies on the roster. But, long term his plan was to build the program with high school recruits and only use the portal when he saw a player that would be a significant upgrade. I think he believes thats where we / he is now, year 2. So, much more selective with the portal. Given this ‘strategy’ I do see him continuing to investigate who hits the portal / QB included this spring. Him / our new GM, and if they believe we can get a major upgrade at the right price they’ll make the move. 

[aubiefifty 16,803]

you can bet your sweet bippy that ALL our QB's will get a hard look.

[cole256 17,084]

I'm still hoping for Hank to keep making a big jump. He has the tools 

[aubiefifty 16,803]

2 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I'm still hoping for Hank to keep making a big jump. He has the tools 

i am as well. his release appears to be so quick it makes it harder on the D's.

[Auburn93 542]

On 2/1/2024 at 11:32 PM, ScotsAU said:

Folks. This is madness. 
 

1. Freeze could actually still be recruiting a QB, and just isn’t going to say anything until the move is made. That is 100 percent within the realm of possibilities. You don’t want to risk running Thorne off by announcing before a final decision is made. Otherwise you risk having neither guy.

2. Don’t start with the “we got turned down by everyone” crap. We just signed the best WR class in the country, and have a massive NIL fund. If we want a top QB, we could get one.  It is a question of if anyone is worth the NIL funds it would take to bring them in. 
 

3. Maybe Freeze knows something   that we don’t. Maybe, of the portal QBs available, Freeze didn’t see any that he thought were better than Thorne. (Remember, Thorne was breaking records at MSU his first year. As of now, it hasn’t translated to SEC level.) Maybe all the QBs that were potentially worth getting weren’t worth the NIL $$ we would’ve had to sacrifice. Maybe Hugh thinks a massive part of Thorne’s issues will go away with better play calling and better  receivers. Thorne did appear to look better down the stretch until the bowl game. Maybe he was playing hurt in the bowl. We have no way of knowing what Freeze may know that we don’t.
 

4. Some things to remember also before we write off Thorne anyway. How many times have Auburn QB’s had a bad season then had a light suddenly come on? Urban Meyer wanted to move Cam Newton to tight end because he was struggling to find consistency throwing the ball at Florida. Two years later… Heisman. Everyone wanted Jason Campbell benched in 2003. One year later… Undefeated season and first round draft pick. Chris Todd was awful in 2008. A year later… he broke several Auburn passing records including the longest pass in history of the program.  Bo Nix gets benched for TJ Finley. Two years later? Heisman candidate. So it is even possible that the light just comes on with a different coordinator and/or position coach. 
 

So maybe let’s pump the breaks a little bit on the “sky is falling” drama.

I agree with everything except Thorne doesn't have great throwing strength. A light coming on is not going to change that. 

[aubiefifty 16,803]

i think when thorne gets folks to catch the ball it will give him more momentum to do better.his stats before he got hurt were just awesome.

[Sizzle 3,914]

On 2/3/2024 at 8:54 AM, cole256 said:

I'm still hoping for Hank to keep making a big jump. He has the tools 

I hope the QB race is fair and everybody gets a real chance. Usually QB competitions ain’t really competitions at all and coaches have their mind made up before they actually say anything. 

Edited February 4 by Sizzle

[aujohnson 299]

I think trust and consistency tend to have coaches lean more toward the upper class men in most cases. I’m not sure how much trust Freeze had in Robby, but my bad memory thinks that all was lost for Robby when he made a couple of blatantly bad reads in what I think was the ole miss game. 
It is hard to earn trust as a new addition to the team. 
I think what we attribute to loyalty a lot of times is just players being able to be trusted. 

[autan 737]

I think we have a small enough QB room, so hopefully everyone will get plenty of opportunities. People keep saying WW will be good a couple of years down the road and seem to discount him for '24. The top ten rated '24 QBs (and White is no. 5 as I recall) they all think they are talented enough to win the job at some point in '24 season. If they aren't starting in a couple of years most likely will move on. CHF has invested a lot in Walker White and doesn't want to lose him. I just feel sure he and Hank will be given every opportunity. They've had his eye for a long time. I  may be wrong (usually am) but I think Walker will be ready. And Hank just needed more weight and strength. He really looks poised. I'm excited about these kids. If nothing else they will light a fire under rears of HG and PT.  WDE!!