Bo Wallace said his son would never play for him. Arkansas football dunked on him on social media. Lane Kiffin fired off multiple not-so-subtle shots.
It’s not easy being Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze this week. The incoming attacks aren’t likely to stop soon, either, as a 2-2 Auburn team still has games against No. 2 Georgia, No. 4 Alabama, No. 11 Missouri, No. 21 Oklahoma and No. 24 Texas A&M to come this season. At this point, Auburn is not guaranteed to even make a bowl game, an abject disaster in what was supposed to be a leap forward in Freeze’s second year.
How did Freeze and Auburn get here? It all starts with the quarterback position, which has prompted so much conversation in the last seven days.
Even within the Auburn program, there wasn’t a consensus that Payton Thorne should be the guy.
After being hired from Liberty in December 2022, Freeze knew he needed to shop in the transfer portal for a new quarterback. The problem was he had little experience doing so and even had to reach out to multiple people in the personnel world asking for help navigating the transfer portal and name, image and likeness, telling them he didn’t have to deal with it while at Liberty, according to multiple sources. Freeze’s inexperience in that department — and inability, or more accurately, unwillingness to adapt — has come back to bite Auburn numerous times.
Auburn pursued multiple quarterbacks in that December transfer window, including North Carolina State QB Devin Leary and Coastal Carolina QB Grayson McCall, but didn’t land one. That put increased pressure on finding one in the spring, which typically isn’t as talent-rich a market.
Auburn strongly pursued Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, though he never entered the transfer…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/auburns-hugh-freeze-ignored-common-sense-and-program-confidantes-in-not-upgrading-at-qb-what-comes-next/
Author : John Talty
Publish date : 2024-09-26 17:04:09
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