During his only media availability of Auburn’s first bye week of the season, Hugh Freeze highlighted the importance of ‘consistency in execution’ and the Tigers' continued miscommunication problems that have surfaced in key points of several games this season.
“When I say consistency, I mean it runs both ways from coaches and players,” Freeze said Wednesday afternoon. “But, it's our job to make sure our kids are consistent in whatever the execution of the calls are, and it just shows up over and over again on tape.”
One of the key miscommunications of Auburn’s most recent loss to Georgia this past Saturday was on a critical fourth-and-one to start the fourth quarter in which quarterback Payton Thorne kept the ball and attempted to run to the right but lost four yards on the play.
“The call was a dive left to Jarquez, and we didn't execute that play,” Freeze said directly after the game on Saturday. “He [Thorne] absolutely didn't go with what we had called. Payton is a thinker, and he knows football, and he decided to try to run some type of zone read there. And I think everybody was a little confused and we definitely weren't on the same page there.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Thorne told The Next Round that he ‘did not check any play’ leading to further confusion on what exactly transpired between the play call and execution in Athens, GA.
Freeze was then asked directly about his fifth year senior quarterback's comments yesterday and the fourth-and-one play.
“It's a whole long story, for sure,” Freeze said. “But, the execution of it wasn't proper. And, you know, Payton really thought he needed to handle an edge guy, and he kept the same run on. So, he's correct. He did not change the play, but that play is not designed to hit from the backside at all. And so he was thinking through things and I understand his thinking. But we can't do that in that situation.”
In efforts of avoiding a fourth consecutive loss in each of the last four seasons when Auburn takes on Missouri in two weeks, Freeze and his staff are focused on ‘regrouping physically and mentally’ in efforts of finding the missing pieces to turn the 2024 campaign around following a 2-4 start.
“We've got to be better coaches in demanding the execution of what we expect to use in the game plan to win the game,” Freeze said. “We gotta demand that those happen, and we gotta be harder on ourselves as coaches and expect more of our kids.”
Following the bye week, Auburn is slated to travel up to Columbia, MO to take on the No. 21 Missouri Tigers on Saturday, Oct. 19 at either at 11a.m. CST or 11:45a.m. CST. ESPN has yet to announce which network the game will air on.
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Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
