5.11.24 Football Articles

[aubiefifty 17,098]

 

[aubiefifty 17,098]

 

[aubiefifty 17,098]

al.com

Hugh Freeze says he couldn’t bring himself to spend $1 million on a QB

Updated: May. 10, 2024, 8:22 a.m.|Published: May. 10, 2024, 6:35 a.m.

4–5 minutes

How is Auburn 5-star Cam Coleman handling the hype?

He’s received heavy criticism for it, but Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has continued to stand behind and support quarterback Payton Thorne.

His case is heavy on the belief that if he can surround Thorne with better talent among wide receivers — which Freeze feels he has done — then the quarterback in his second year at Auburn can be more successful.

“I believe in our quarterback room,” Freeze said Wednesday on Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic’s radio show while at the Regions Tradition in Birmingham. “I believe in Kent Austin. I believe that if you have the right pieces around Peyton that we can have success. I think you saw some glimpses of that. I don’t think we had a really total package around him really.”

Freeze added seven new scholarship receivers around Thorne including four freshmen and three transfers. But that route, Freeze said, was because he wanted to focus Auburn’s Name, Image and Likeness resources on bringing more pieces in for the whole offense instead of dumping a massive sum on a new quarterback.

“The options that you are presented with: develop Payton, develop Holden (Geriner), develop Hank (Brown) develop Walker (White) or go spend a million dollars on this guy,” Freeze said. “And I just couldn’t bring myself to doing that.”

His comment is referencing the bidding wars and large NIL deals often handed out as recruitment for top quarterbacks in the transfer portal. Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule has previously said publicly that it costs upwards of $1 million to land a good transfer quarterback.

NIL has become an ever-increasing factor in recruiting, especially at the position that will garner the most attention, pressure and scrutiny. The recruiting coverage website On3 has created a metric for projecting a player’s NIL value. It is not a number that equates to the actual value of deals a player has agreed to, but across all college sports, seven fo the top 10 highest-valued players are quarterbacks.

Auburn was never a serious contender for a transfer quarterback this offseason. It was linked to a few big names, including Cam Ward (who eventually committed to Miami) and former Freeze QB Kaidon Salter (who opted to stay at Liberty).

Freeze has been steadfast that he didn’t want to bring in a new quarterback or transfer at any position that he felt uncomfortable with. He has been tentative about the transfer portal during his time at Auburn, not fully in favor of the quick movement that is required compared to the long-term relationships of high school recruitments. Freeze has been much more inclined to build his program from high school players instead of a collection of transfers.

Though Freeze may stick with Thorne, who is in his final year with Auburn, that doesn’t mean he would be unwilling to spend big money in the future if the right situation arose.

“I wanted to put all the pieces together,” Freeze said. “Now, I’m not saying I won’t do that in time, but just currently, I think (Thorne) has proven, I’ve watched his Michigan State tape a thousand times and he had two NFL receivers there. He was pretty dang good.”

Auburn had the SEC’s worst passing offense last season by yards per game. The 162.2 yards per game Auburn passed for last season was ranked 121st out of 130 FBS teams.

Freeze has not officially declared Thorne as the starter for next season but has essentially done everything but. He has said the job is Thorne’s to lose, while not shutting down competition from the top three other scholarship quarterbacks on the roster.

Freeze’s biggest waiver on Thorne heading into next season came immediately after the Music City Bowl in December where Auburn lost to Maryland 31-13 and Thorne passed for just 84 yards on 27 attempts.

But Thorne has never lost his spot as Auburn’s top quarterback throughout spring practices.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

[aubiefifty 17,098]

another slow football days folks........

[Eagle-2 255]

7 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

 

Well, next time a SEC school hires this idiot he can spend all the millions on a QB he wants.

[aubiefifty 17,098]

15 hours ago, Eagle-2 said:

Well, next time a SEC school hires this idiot he can spend all the millions on a QB he wants.

hugh?

[Mikey 16,777]

21 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

hugh?

No, the commentator.

[aubiefifty 17,098]

1 minute ago, Mikey said:

No, the commentator.

thanx i just woke up and had one sip of coffee..............

[Eagle-2 255]

1 hour ago, aubiefifty said:

hugh?

Nah man, this so called football expert.

I guess anyone can pull their opinions out of a part of their anatomy that most of us just sit on. 

It's real easy to sit back, and say someone made a huge mistake, but I haven't noticed anyone asking this dude to run their football program. 

Personally, I hope Thorne balls out this year, and crow will be on a lot of folks menu. 

 

Edited May 12 by Eagle-2

[aubiefifty 17,098]

28 minutes ago, Eagle-2 said:

Nah man, this so called football expert.

I guess anyone can pull their opinions out of a part of their anatomy that most of us just sit on. 

It's real easy to sit back, and say someone made a huge mistake, but I haven't noticed anyone asking this dude to run their football program. 

Personally, I hope Thorne balls out this year, and crow will be on a lot of folks menu. 

 

if thorne does not ball out it is on him now as we have given him a better line and receivers. his stats before he got hurt were pretty dang good. i hope he repeats that.............

[aubiefifty 17,098]

 

[aucanucktiger 1,805]

Who's the poorly closeted Bamzo in the first vid? Not only is his blather nothing original but it's a bald, emotional slam of Auburn ("you can do blah blah at bama and jawja but not auburn"). I kept waiting for him to reference Thorne's MSU play with 2 NFL caliber WRs - Freeze just went out and got 3 - but he simply plays to the lowest common denominator.