A controversial play in Auburn’s 31-13 loss at Georgia is still a hot topic around the Plains two weeks later.
Auburn trailed Georgia, 21-10 at the start of the 4th quarter on Oct. 5 and had the chance to extend a drive on 4th down. However, Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne appeared to have called an audible, which resulted in a sack and a turnover on downs. Georgia scored on the ensuing drive thanks to a three-yard pass from Carson Beck to Dillon Bell to extend the lead to 28-10.
The decision turned into Freeze blaming Thorne for the lack of success on the play, saying that Thorne “didn’t go with what we had called” during his postgame press conference. Thorne contradicted Freeze’s claim last week during an appearance on Next Round Live by saying that he did not check the play.
The play was brought up again Monday during Freeze’s preview press conference ahead of Auburn’s game at Missouri. Freeze doubled down on his claim that Thorne did not execute the called play but took the blame for Thorne checking out.
“I don’t read the media. I don’t listen. I don’t have social media anymore. I’m very transparent and will tell you exactly the truth of what happened. Payton (Thorne) thought he needed to change the alignment of the back to handle an edge guy. Some of that may have been based on him asking an offensive lineman. Again, we have to do a better job coaching. That shouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t a part of the process. If you go watch the film, if we leave our alignment like it’s supposed to be and we hand the ball off, Jarquez (Hunter) is running on a DB for an easy first down. I understand his thinking there, they just unfolded a linebacker on the backside, so obviously we didn’t coach it well enough for him to know he didn’t have to do that.”
It will be interesting to see how much Freeze and Thorne worked on playcalling and audibles last week as the Tigers return from its first bye to face No. 16 Missouri on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on ESPN.
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