Auburn Players Accepting Responsibility for 2-5 Start

While Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze has been quick to assign blame through the 2-5 start, Auburn's players are taking accountability.

The Auburn Tigers and Hugh Freeze have underachieved to a massive degree in 2024. / John Reed-Imagn Images

If Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze is genuinely attempting to fall on his sword regarding his team's struggles - then it's going to take a lot more than just admitting he's "disappointed."

"It's a difficult year where it seems like nothing is going your way when you need it to," Freeze lamented after Saturday’s loss. "It's just disappointing."

Cathartic blood letting it most certainly is not, so with the growing majority of Tigers fans desperate to see their head coach's feet held to the fire, it's undoubtedly difficult to see how Freeze mounts a comeback of any great significance. 

Possible fractures within his own locker room remain a clear and present danger, and at times, you could very reasonably make the assumption that everything is hanging by a thread.

Despite Freeze's willingness to assign blame to a quarterback, a wide receiver, or a kicker among others this year, members of the Tigers defense have been most vocal in voicing that they need to pony up. Linebacker Jalen McLeod insisted that the nuts and bolts of getting off the field on third downs should be a key priority.

"We have to be men about it," McLeod declared. "We know it's clutch time, and we know it's third-and-long and we have to get off the field. We have to win third downs, and we're not doing that. We have to fix that. We just have to."

Of course this isn't the NFL, a place where the fundamentals are expected to be part of a player's DNA by that level. The responsibility for basic errors just maybe will have to rest firmly at the doorstep of coach Freeze.

Furthermore, the frequent bouts of saber-rattling aimed toward embattled starting quarterback Payton Thorne have come across as projection by Freeze, and now nobody is buying it anymore.

If Freeze is so out on Thorne's ability to run the show, surely questions must be asked about why he was so quick to pivot away from Hank Brown and back to his demoted starter after only one half of football? No matter how poor that half may have been.

Freeze rolling with not one but two signal callers he clearly cannot trust was an act of madness he created by his own inactivity in the transfer portal.

For all his struggles and regular misfires, Thorne had never quit on his team, and the treatment he's received from his own coach has probably gone into the toxic territory of scapegoating.

While team captain Eugene Asante has previously declared that it's the players who need to take responsibility, Freeze is coaching with a blindfold on with alarming regularity.

Freeze's saving grace for his tenure thus far at Auburn has been his recruiting. But how quickly can the Tigers improve at quarterback next year with the same cast of characters and a true freshman in Deuce Knight.

Failing at the game's most important position threatens to undermine and good Freeze is accomplishing across the rest of the roster. Knight will need time to develop. Time Freeze isn't likely to get next season if his team doesn't show substantial improvement.