Payton Thorne's Injury Could Open Door for QB Change at Auburn

Struggling Auburn Tigers quarterback Payton Thorne is battling a sore shoulder, and Hugh Freeze may pounce on the opportunity to make a change.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze could shelve starting quarterback Payton Thorne for the final-three games. / Austin Perryman, Auburn University Athletics

Nobody hates injuries depleting their ranks more than a head coach, especially one who happens to be seriously under fire himself.

Funny thing is, Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze has been looking for a reason to turn the page on lackluster starting quarterback Payton Thorne for most of this failed campaign.

So, for as unfortunate as it might ultimately be, Thorne's recent shoulder injury has undoubtedly opened the door for Freeze to make a guilt free switch under center.

"Payton (Thorne) has played solid. Now he was not able to practice last week with his shoulder, and we'll see how this week goes with that and with others getting the reps and kind of go from there," Freeze admitted on Monday.

"When I say that, it's certainly not an indication that I don't think he has played pretty solid here as of late. But you start kind of thinking big-picture, and that's not always the easiest thing to do because you love your players and you want what's best for all of them, what gives us the best chance to win the remaining three games. And obviously we'll start seeing how the health is, first and foremost."

While a large section of the Tigers faithful might be especially keen on forgetting all about the 2024 season, Freeze has probably worked out himself that self-preservation will rely on getting wins which may well keep his recruitment train on track.

"It's vital that we compete," Freeze declared. "That's the expectation and certainly that's the goal to give ourselves a chance to win these football games against good football teams that we have to play to help build momentum, as you say, and confidence in everybody that we're headed in the right direction regardless of the record. And recruiting is big, too, to try to finish strong and continue to get the '25 class to understand we're not far off and we need their help to come in and continue to help us build this."

What might blow the latest Freeze masterplan to bits is the presence of Alabama and Texas A&M on the Tigers remaining schedule. 

Two tough games that don't really cry out for inserting a younger and untested signal caller into the starting lineup in all fairness, but Freeze has been using the second bye week to make some contingency plans nonetheless. 

"The second open week we actually got the other guys quite a bit of reps in the three practices we had," Freeze explained. "Then we had a little scrimmage to close it out. Offense versus defense, other guys that typically don't get reps, and offense won that scrimmage on a pass play from Walker (White) to one of the young receivers. It was good to see them get reps. We got |Holden (Geriner) and Hank (Brown) quite a few also."

Tigers fans would likely be far less enthused with the particularly vanilla prospect of Hank Brown settling back in under center.

On the flip side, Freeze must be extremely cautious to not just throw the promising Walker White to the wolves because that might have far longer debilitating consequences to the program on the whole. With just three games remaining, White could compete without burning his redshirt season.

Even so, dipping his toe into new quarterback waters is perhaps suddenly more of a pressing concern, especially if Freeze bears witness to the video of Deuce Knight invading the field at Vaught Hemingway Stadium clad in the home team's colors.