Oklahoma, Auburn Entering Matchup with Similar QB Issues

Oklahoma and Auburn both benched their starting quarterbacks last week in losses to start SEC play.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze and quarterback Hank Brown / John Reed-Imagn Images

It’s nearly an identical storyline for two different SEC programs that happen to meet this weekend. 

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables and Auburn coach Hugh Freeze talked to reporters Wednesday morning on different segments during the weekly SEC coaches teleconference ahead of their matchup at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Both coaches benched their starting quarterback in their last game, both of which were losses to begin conference play. Since, Venable’s has announced freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. as OU’s starter, while Freeze is still watching his options battle it out this week. 

Venables immediately brought up the elephant in the room during his opening statement as Freeze was asked about his two quarterbacks on the second question of his 10-minute availability. 

“We made a switch to see if we could spark the offense,” Venables said. “We showed signs there later in the game and got us within 10 points there. Mike Hawkins will be our starter this week. I didn’t want it to hang over anyone’s head and everybody speculating, kind of create an additional story. Mike’s a really talented guy. He can really spin it, makes quick decisions and is just really athletic. Still believing in Jackson (Arnold), it’s just the right thing to do at this moment. And we’ve all seen in college football, certainly in this conference, you’re gonna probably need a couple of quarterbacks when it’s all said and done. We gotta get better around whoever is quarterback, and if we do that, we got a chance to have a pretty good season and be a really good team.” 

Hawkins replaced Arnold late in the second quarter against Tennessee. The final straw was Arnold turning the ball over for the ninth time in five career starts. OU’s passing game overall had been struggling, too, averaging 9.3 yards a completion, which is worst in the SEC and better than only seven teams in the entire FBS.

Auburn, though, even in the midst of a QB carousel, has excelled in that same stat, averaging an SEC-best 16.46 yards a completion. But, like the Sooners, the Tigers’ quarterbacks have turned the ball over too much to hold onto the starting job and influencing Auburn’s 2-2 record. 

The Tigers have turned the ball over 14 times this season in four games. Quarterbacks Payton Thorne and Hank Brown were responsible for nine of those. Thorne, the opening-day starter, has thrown five interceptions and fumbled once. Brown, a redshirt freshman, threw three interceptions last week against Arkansas. Brown was pulled after the third pick, but even after that, Thorne threw another interception later in the game. 

Interceptions have been the difference in both of Auburn’s losses. Thorne threw four of his five picks in the loss to California. Brown then got his first career start the next week against New Mexico, but the week after that was his three-INT outing in the loss to Arkansas. 

"We can't turn the football over, and obviously we've got to coach the quarterbacks better and running backs better in ball security and decision-making to be able to be an effective offense,” Freeze said Monday at his weekly press conference. “It’s sickening, truthfully, to know that you’re averaging almost 7 yards per rush and creating explosive plays and not scoring the points that should come with what those stats say. I’ve never been with any team that turned the football over and won football games. Go watch the game, and you see we’re moving the football. I believe in what we’re doing. I don’t think there’s any changes that need to be made other than 10 turnovers are tough in two football games.”

But there’s only so much change Freeze can make to fix those turnovers. Thorne and Brown are the roots of the problem, but one must also become the solution. 

“We’re averaging 6 yards a rush, above 6 yards a rush, one of the top in the nation in explosive plays per pass attempt, but we’re also one of the top in the nation in turnovers,” Freeze said Wednesday. “So somehow we’ve got to – you take those turnovers away, and I think we’re all sitting here feeling differently, and so if there’s something we can do better as coaches to help with that, let’s have open dialogue about it, but we’ve got to try to focus on the things you are doing really well that you feel really comfortable with. That’s just kind of our focus this week with both of those guys to try to maintain the confidence level that they need to compete against a team as good as Oklahoma and Georgia and the Missouris and the ones we have coming up. 

“It is a challenge. It’s one that both are pretty mentally strong, I think, and are anxious to get another opportunity, whoever we decide to go with. And so I think that’s a good thing and a bright spot that they both are mentally strong.”