Hugh Freeze 'Pleased' With Hank Brown's First Career Start

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze thought highly of Hank Brown's first career college start. However, he still has a lot to prove.

Hugh Freeze was impressed with Hank Brown's first college start. However, he has to keep impressing. / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK

The biggest storyline to come from the Auburn Tigers’ 45-19 win over New Mexico on Saturday was the performance of quarterback Hank Brown in his first career start.

Brown went 17-of-25 (68%) and threw for 235 yards and four touchdowns. 

Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze was pleased with Brown’s first start even though there are always things to improve.

“Truthfully, he had three things that we need to get corrected, other than his clock awareness has got to improve,” Freeze said. “But he had two times he got us late in the clock. One was a delay, and he did not have to even get out of that play. He was thinking a little too much. So awareness of clock stuff, but the three things that he did there, one was a really poor choice on a rollout pass. Can't do that. 

“The other two were not necessarily bad passes. There’s just a better option on certain things, whether you need to throw into pressure here, or you did not need to check out of this, it was not man coverage. That just comes with experience. And those were really the only three things.”

Freeze felt Brown would’ve done even better if not for the dropped passes and weather. 

“He got us in the right runs, 100% of his checks were right,” Freeze said. “So his decision-making was good, his execution was good. Could have had a higher percentage of completions, I think. Had a drop by Perry (Thompson), and had a couple of wet ball issues, probably, that that hurt some there at the end of the second (quarter) as we had no time outs, so we weren’t getting a dry ball in. So I was pleased with his first performance, for sure, and next week will be a bigger test for him.”

Brown is showing a lot of promise out of the gate. However, he needs to keep it up. It’s a short leash with the other options at quarterback. The Tigers need Brown to produce immediately.

“I’m not much on slack,” Freeze said. “He’s got to get it done. You have a veteran senior behind him in Payton (Thorne) that we still have belief in. But Hank (Brown) looked poised. I don’t think the moments are too big for him now.”

Even without a lot of slack, Freeze knows what Browns’ potential can be.

"And I've always felt like he had this "it" factor to him as an individual...That doesn't always translate into him having the "it" factor in making plays, but every opportunity that he got here, even though the sample size was really, really small, every single time that he has got that opportunity it seemed natural for him.” 

Brown will have the opportunity to show what he can do against an SEC opponent on Saturday when the Tigers host Arkansas at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT and ESPN will carry the broadcast.