Iron Bowl is Last Chance for Odd Couple Payton Thorne, Hugh Freeze

Embattled quarterback Payton Thorne and Hugh Freeze have one-more chance to change the legacy of the 2024 season in today's Iron Bowl.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze and quarterback Payton Thorne have endured a love/hate relationship the last-two years. / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In any blatantly failing relationship, the cracks become fractures unless you somehow fill them back in again.

So in a nutshell you've got the far from harmonious partnership of quarterback Payton Thorne and head coach Hugh Freeze on the 2024 Auburn Tigers.

Thorne has found himself screamed at, heavily criticised, undermined and benched briefly in his final year of eligibility, but somehow he's still starting under center in the Iron Bowl later today.

Clearly, sheer perseverance matters in the brutal landscape of college football. Even Freeze has thawed out a little when he talks about his quarterback. 

"Most of our conversations now - there'll be some ball talk obviously in the meetings and stuff - but most of it's been about just the mental toughness that he and I have kind of endured together to get through a lot of these things," Freeze said at media availability this week.

"He could have gone a lot of different directions, and credit to him and his makeup and his determination and mental toughness to to not let other people define him, and to continue to go to work and get better and improve and help others around him improve. And so most of our talks have just been about that."

Losing to Cal at home was kind of when things all came to a head with Thorne and his head coach.  Thorne's spluttering, turnover riddled performance had everyone scratching their heads as to why Freeze didn't aggressively pursue another quarterback in the transfer portal.

Over the last two games however, the former Michigan State player has gone for nearly 500 yards and seven touchdowns against only one pick, and of course there was the gutsy overtime win over Texas A&M.

"I mean, he's really played well in a lot of games since the Cal game, and he just hadn't gotten the results for one reason or the other," Freeze insisted. "But his play's been pretty consistent."

As freshman wide receiver Cam Coleman has continued his burgeoning development, we have found that Thorne's performances have also picked up, and of course KeAndre Lambert-Smith has been consistently playing at an All-SEC level since arriving from Penn State.

For all that Thorne has been through, just perhaps he's laying some tangible foundations for future success, and he certainly is determined to go out on a high.

"Our last regular-season game here, give ourselves a chance to make a bowl," Thorne declared this week. "That would be a heck of a way to end the year. And so it'd mean a lot to me, something you can look back on, you know, years down the road and say you won that rivalry game."

Winning the Iron Bowl would certainly write a far different ending for Thorne and Freeze, but we would be remiss to simply forgive and forget how the odd couple routine simply failed.