Payton Thorne and Hugh Freeze on Same Page with Helmet Communication

After failing to find much common ground thus far, Hugh Freeze and Payton Thorne are embracing helmet comms and huddling up.

Despite added communication technology Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze and quarterback Payton Thorne haven't always been on the same page. / John Reed-Imagn Images

After blowing three out of their five home games to open the season - it's safe to say that the Auburn Tigers have thrown away a major competitive advantage they had - the schedule.

Hitting the road all through the month of October is going to be a slog-fest, and the first haymaker to negotiate will come in the shape of the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs this Saturday.

Head coach Hugh Freeze is well aware his stumbling Tigers team is already a huge underdog, but on hostile enemy turf, he really has no other option than to prepare his young squad for the challenge at hand.

"The environment will be tough for them," Freeze told the SEC coaches teleconference. "So, we're doing everything that I know to do to prepare them. Just like everyone else, we are making it loud in practice to see how they're handling that. We have alternative plans on how we're going to do play calling, so our kids know what's going on."

Noise will be a factor for sure, but after being a little bit reticent at first about the usage and potential benefits of helmet communication, Freeze has turned into a fan of it just recently.

"I'm starting to enjoy the helmet communication," Freeze declared. "We used it quite a bit last week and we were efficient and worked well."

If the wheels of communication can be greased by helmet communication all good, furthermore, that's great news for Freeze and his starting quarterback Payton Thorne. 

While the result last Saturday against the Oklahoma Sooners was massively disappointing, Thorne experienced further growth in how they were conveying information to the players when in the heat of battle. He also turned in a 338-yard passing performance with three touchdowns.

Therein lay an important change to how they approached things, Thorne did less at the line of scrimmage and enjoyed the more pro-feel of directing traffic within the huddle.

"We huddled more than we ever have," Thorne told reporters this week. "More than I ever have in my career, and I think more than Coach Freeze usually does, for sure. And so I actually enjoyed it. It was a change up, and I enjoyed being able to talk to my guys before every play and just look at them. I don't know, there's something about that, about looking a guy in the eye and having the whole-11 right there in front of you."

Overall expectations might suddenly be a lot lower ahead of the Tigers heading to Georgia this weekend. That might even work to the advantage of Freeze and his embattled quarterback.

As the wheels have spun in the dirt, just buying some time is suddenly more important than ever, especially because the emerging realization is that this young team needs a lot more competitive seasoning.

In all-three losses Freeze has lamented how turnovers have blighted the Tigers chances, so playing that mistake free game he's desperately seeking will at least provide a huge sign that some progress is being made.

Thorne has been particularly switched onto trying to be as professional as possible this week. Deep down, Thorne feels that the NFL type elements of their most recent challenges can bring the best out of the Tigers as a collective.

So the prevailing feeling is that they aren't scared of the challenge which lies ahead - it should be a testing ground first and foremost. 

"And, you know, we had talked throughout the week. It was going to be kind of like an NFL type game," said Thorne. "Field position was going to matter this week more than usual. Turnovers always matter. Just talent wise in this league, talent is not completely even across the board, but it's, especially the last couple of years, become fairly even. There's good players on every team, and so all those things matter to win a game, a big game on Saturday. So the huddling was an NFL aspect of that as well. So I enjoyed it, I think it's a useful tool." 

Bring the toolbox on Saturday; it's a bear minimum.