Auburn coach Hugh Freeze: ‘We’ve got to find a guy that won’t throw it to the other team’

Auburn has been plagued by turnovers so far in 2024.

The Tigers turned the ball over five times in a miserable 24-14 home loss to Arkansas on Saturday. Starting quarterback Hank Brown threw three interceptions before he was replaced by Payton Thorne in the second half. Thorne also threw a pick and Damari Alston fumbled into the end zone in the first half.

Brown was making his second start after Thorne started the first two games of the season. Tigers QBs have combined for eight interceptions through four games. Auburn has also fumbled six times.

“I know that there’s people open and I know that we’re running the football,” Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said. “And we’ve got to find a guy that won’t throw it to the other team. And we’ve got to find running backs that hold onto it.”

Freeze was clearly referencing Alston’s fumble, which came in the first half with Arkansas holding a 7-0 lead. The Razorbacks didn’t turn his fumble into points, but the giveaway was the first of three consecutive Auburn possessions that ended in a turnover. Brown threw interceptions on the Tigers’ next two opportunities.

That led to Freeze making a QB change at halftime as Thorne took over for the second half. He started the team’s season-opening win over Alabama A&M and the Week 2 loss to Cal before Freeze made a change ahead of Week 3 vs. New Mexico. After the loss to Cal, Freeze pinned the game on players’ mistakes and not anything from the coaching staff in his postgame coach’s show, saying that “there was one play in this game that I think was a bad call by our staff.”

After Freeze’s comments Saturday, one of his former Ole Miss QBs criticized his remarks. Bo Wallace played for Freeze when Freeze was in Oxford and said that Freeze’s player criticism was part of a pattern.

Auburn didn’t add a quarterback through the transfer portal after the 2023 season as Thorne was the team’s starter in Freeze’s first year. With both Brown and Thorne having issues through the first four games, Freeze said he was unsure who would start in Week 5 against an Oklahoma team that’s also looking to get on track offensively.

“I have no idea sitting here right now, but I’ll go back to work tomorrow on it. I’ll be as locked in as I’ve ever been to try to get it fixed.”