Georgia football has a few problems to take care of coming off its first regular-season loss in four years, but nothing like what has happened at Auburn of late.
Tigers coach Hugh Freeze, is only his second year at the helm, is fighting to keep control of his locker room and his program’s confidence after back-to-back SEC home losses.
Freeze said Auburn (2-3, 0-2 SEC) will carry the fight forward into its 3:30 p.m. at No. 5 Georgia (3-1, 1-1) because there’s no other choice but to keep fighting.
It’s the 129th meeting in the so-called “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry,” with the Bulldogs winning the most recent seven meetings to lead the all-time series 64-56-8.
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“What happens when you sign up for a job and it doesn’t’ go the way you want? Do you spiral?” Freeze asked rhetorically.
“There is not another option. We get the opportunity this week to go play one of the top teams in the country with a really young, building team.”
Auburn typically plays a veteran at quarterback, however, and Payton Thorne’s results have caused plenty of commotion.
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Thorne threw four interceptions in a 21-14 loss to Cal on Sept. 7, leading to him getting benched for the start of the New Mexico game.
Hank Brown, a redshirt freshman, got the start against the Lobos and was 17-of-25 passing for 235 yards with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions.
But when Brown started slow with three interceptions in the first half against Arkansas, Freeze responded by benching him and reinserting Thorne.
Thorne appeared on the verge of leading Auburn to a critical win over Oklahoma before the Sooners picked him off and ran the interception back for the game-winning touchdown.
Freeze called out the quarterback play after the loss to Arkansas and drew great criticism from analysts and fans thinking the head coach should be taking more blame himself.
Freeze explained in this past Monday press conference how he was not trying to shift blame, so much as explain to fans what has gone wrong with the program.
“… everybody seems to think that when I tell you what really happened,” Freeze said, going over situations in the Oklahoma game,”that I throw somebody under the bus — I’m not.”
Fact is, Freeze claims to like this football team, to the extent he believes the Tigers could be undefeated if not for critical turnovers.
“We could easily, like I said in my opening statement sitting here, be 5-0, but we didn’t get it done” Freeze said. “We can point to the coaching errors, and we can point to the 11 turnovers and all those things.
“It’s a mixture. We could point to our youth …. But we are a result-oriented profession, and those results didn’t go our way.”
The Tigers’ 15 turnovers on the season rank as the second-highest most among the 133 FBS teams.
Freeze knows it’s a tough road ahead for Auburn this season, as after playing Georgia the Tigers will use a bye week to get ready for trips to Missouri (Oct. 19), Kentucky (Oct. 26) and a home game with Vanderbilt (Nov. 2).
It’s likely most if not many Tigers’ fans were optimistic the games following Georgia would be victories, but Auburn is instead of shaky ground after consecutive SEC home losses.
“Yes, it is a tough October, yes, there will be some great challenges,” Freeze said. “We could certainty lose some games, we could certainly win some games.”
Freeze’s future might hang in the balance of how Auburn finishes with programs more sensitive than ever now that NIL funding is on the table, momentum more important than ever.
Freeze had a message for the Tigers’ faithful where the future of the program is concerned.
“It’s my responsibility to bring results to this program that restore its glory, that not only restores the glory of the Auburn football team on the field, but also I firmly believe that part of my job is to build up Auburn men,” Freeze said. “Our fan base has done their part, which makes not being 5-0 very hard to swallow. We certainly had our chances to do that.
“My ask is to stick with us through the growing pains and support our guys and efforts and our recruiting efforts, because the results are going to come. We’re not that far off.”
