“Every Rose Has Its Thorne.”
The 1988 song by Poison still rings true in many aspects of life today. Unfortunately for the Auburn Tigers, the sentiment of the metaphor has become much more literal than [autotag]Hugh Freeze[/autotag] and his coaching staff would have liked. Auburn’s head coach has spent his first year-plus on the Plains recruiting, and bringing in, flashy weapons that inherently should give his offense the ability to blossom in a very competitive SEC.
That has not happened. Much like a rose needs a strong stem to become an ascetically pleasing product, an offense needs a strong quarterback. Payton Thorne has the talent and experience to be the stem that supports players like [autotag]Cam Coleman[/autotag], [autotag]Rivaldo Fairweather[/autotag], and [autotag]KeAndre Lambert-Smith[/autotag] but for whatever reason, it has not happened.
Auburn’s “QB1” was given a long leash in 2023. It was the first year for not only him, but for Hugh Freeze and his contingent of transfer portal plug-ins and coaching staff hold overs as well. Freeze is now in year two. Many of the Tigers playing every Saturday were brought in by him, or kept by him. Excuses are running thin.
This football team should not be losing as near-two-touchdown favorites at home in the second game of the season. The talent is there. While fingers can be pointed, small problems can be “duct-taped”, and low expectations can be used to justify poor performance, at some point, Auburn’s football program needs to be moving in an upward trajectory. One can argue it’s been almost five years since the figurative graph describing the Tiger program has pointed skyward.
Hugh Freeze’s recruiting prowess cannot be discarded. Auburn has a top seven class coming to the Loveliest Village next season and a top three on the way in 2026. There is no denying the realizable significant impact those classes could have on this football team. The issue is, as it continues to be with Hugh Freeze, none of the 30+ high schoolers currently committed to wear orange and blue during their college years play the quarterback position.
The Tigers do have an affluence of highly-touted signal-callers on the current roster however, and while Auburn’s leading man has continuously clamored that none have out performed his transfer portal senior in practice, at some point games have to matter. Redshirt freshmen Hank Brown, true freshman Walker White, and sophomore Holden Geriner have years of eligibility left and the ability to learn this Auburn offense through game action as soon as this week against New Mexico.
All three members of the trio may not be a better option than Payton Thorne, at least in the immediate future, but they have youth and upside on their side which the current starting quarterback simply does not have. Auburn’s coaching staff knows what Payton Thorne is and what he is going to be. The 23-year-old is a solid quarterback that is plagued by inconsistency reading a defense and below-average pocket presence.
It’s very possible Hank Brown could end up being the same player, or a worse player, than Payton Thorne. Now is the time to find out. Continuously trotting out a senior in an already somewhat lost season doesn’t do anything for the Auburn program but keep it in limbo.
Auburn has an opportunity to discover a quarterback on the current roster who can lead what should be a much more talented team next season and beyond. Payton Thorne will not be a Tiger in 2025. It’s time to find out what you have in Brown, White, and Geriner before this same situation arises a year from now.
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