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al.com So is Hank Brown really going to be a factor in Auburn’s upcoming quarterback competition? Published: Jan. 01, 2024, 7:02 a.m. 5–7 minutes "I don't need someone to tell me I didn't get it done" says Hugh Freeze after Maryland pounds Auburn The game’s result was already far from in question when a white jersey with a navy blue No. 15 sewn on jogged between the lines at Nissan Stadium. His first snap Saturday was the first of his college career, and all done so in his hometown. Yet freshman quarterback and Nashville native Hank Brown came out slinging as if his team didn’t trail by a massive margin, as if he wasn’t in the lights of an NFL stadium and as if the moment of his first-ever playing time wasn’t any bit too big for him. On the second career pass attempt of his career, Brown flicked one of the best deep balls thrown by any Auburn quarterback this season — hitting wide receiver Caleb Burton in stride for a 53-yard gain which set up a touchdown. Auburn was losing 31-7 when Brown entered the game in an eventual 31-13 loss. But the two quarterbacks ahead of him on Auburn’s depth chart — Payton Thorne and Holden Geriner — both struggled mightily against Maryland. Thorne was 13-27 for 84 yards and Geriner was 1-6 for eight yards. Both Thorne and Geriner threw interceptions. If not for a penalty calling it off, Thorne would have thrown a second interception. Only one quarterback gave Auburn any sort of a spark in the Music City Bowl. And albeit it coming late in the game with a slew of backups around him, that player was Hank Brown. After the loss, head coach Hugh Freeze said Auburn’s starting quarterback position would be “wide-open” heading into 2024. That comment came hardly two weeks after he seemingly committed to Thorne as his starter going into next season. Yet after just one short flash of excellence, could Brown factor into that competition? While he may not be likely to win the job, being a name in the rotation for snaps in upcoming spring ball and fall camp practices is not far-fetched. “But Hank is just, I like the way he plays,” tight end Rivaldo Fairweather said after the Music City Bowl. “He’s really calm and composed and he’s just a good kid, man. You just got to keep going and keep playing hard and hopefully, he’ll get a shot.” Brown spent the 2023 regular season essentially fourth in line behind Thorne, Robby Ashford and Geriner. Thorne and Geriner will both be back next year. Ashford entered the transfer portal. Auburn will also be adding four-star signee Walker White to the room. Freeze’s initial assertion when backing Thorne was a belief that if he could put the pieces in around the Michigan State transfer, then Thorne’s play would improve as a result. What Freeze realized Saturday is that the incoming wide receiver class with two five-star and two four-star recruits will not be enough by itself to fix the quarterback play. Yet when Freeze mentioned getting the right talent around Thorne, Brown’s name came up there too. “I believe that if we get the right pieces around him and Holden and Hank, I think our quarterback room is going to be fine next year,” Freeze said as Auburn opened practices for the Music City Bowl on Dec. 16. “I believe in Payton. I believe in Holden. I believe in Hank. I believe in (White). If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but that’s my belief.” In fact, Brown’s name has always hovered around the quarterback battle even going all the way back to SEC Media Days in July. “Hank Brown, I love,” Freeze said in July of whittling down his fall camp quarterback competition. “He can make every throw. But realistically you can’t get four kids reps in camp.” Brown has been one of Freeze’s longest-tenured quarterback selections on the current roster. Brown — a three-star high school recruit from the nationally regarded Lipscomb Academy team in Nashville, Tennessee — originally committed to Freeze while he was still the head coach at Liberty. When Freeze left Liberty for Auburn, Brown de-committed. Newly appointed Auburn offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery recruited Brown to follow Freeze to Auburn and in December 2022, Brown signed his letter of intent for the Tigers. Brown and White are Auburn’s only two quarterback signees out of high school under Freeze. Thorne was a quarterback picked out by Freeze, but one taken late out of the transfer portal after spring practices had already ended. From a pure development standpoint, Brown and White are far more tied than Freeze than Thorne — albeit Freeze has on multiple occasions been willing to put his full stance behind his transfer quarterback. It still does not appear as if Auburn will change course and add another transfer quarterback. Maybe Brown’s flash of potential alleviates a concern over depth following Ashford’s departure. Freeze brought Brown along to Auburn for a reason. Whether he’s the answer at quarterback is another question. But will he get a shot? Yeah, seems like it. Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

saturdaydownsouth.com 3 takeaways from Auburn’s dreadful Music City Bowl loss to Maryland Keith Farner | 2 days ago 3–4 minutes Auburn is trying to build momentum for Hugh Freeze’s second season at Auburn, but the Music City Bowl proved to be a significant speed bump. The Tigers never seemed to be in control, and after Maryland built a 3-touchdown lead, the Terrapins coasted to victory over Auburn, 31-13. Maryland quarterback Billy Edwards Jr., who played in place of Taulia Tagovailoa, had a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown in the game to help Maryland build a big lead. Hugh Freeze in recent days shared concerns about Auburn’s tackling, and that was very much the case, especially early on. Here are our 3 takeaways from the game: Rough start Rough starts have been a theme lately, and it happened again in Nashville. Auburn has gone 3-and-out on its first possession in 3 straight games. It has also allowed the opponent to score an opening-drive touchdown in 3 straight games. Not only that, but Maryland’s 21 points scored in the first quarter were the most Auburn has allowed in an opening quarter since 2014. It took a while for Auburn to find some traction on defense. It finally forced Maryland to punt for the first time in this game midway through the second quarter trailing 21-0. Forgettable 2nd half As if the 1st half wasn’t enough, Auburn and Maryland went through a slog in the 3rd quarter alone. Auburn and Maryland combined for 33 total yards on 29 combined plays. Auburn mustered just 16 yards and was 1-for-4 on 3rd down conversions, and made 2 turnovers. Then, after Holden Geriner came in to a big ovation, the Auburn QB began 1-for-6 for 8 yards and an interception. That summarized the offensive effort for much of the game, as Auburn didn’t get any movement along the offensive line, and receivers didn’t get open down the field. Defense was the silver lining The terrible start was one thing, but at least the Auburn defense showed some fight the rest of the game. Maryland started the game with 3 drives that went for 19 plays for 226 yards and 3 TDs. But after that, the Terrapins were limited on their next 3 drives to 18 plays for 49 yards and a field goal. If not the defense, Hank Brown, who was the 3rd Auburn QB to enter the game, began the game 7-for-7 as he engineered an effective drive that drove Auburn to the Maryland 15-yard line. TRENDING 58,148 READS 51,772 READS 23,016 READS Keith Farner A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South. Follow on Twitter.

Young Auburn defense shows promise in loss to Maryland Auburn's defense played strong after a rough start in the Music City Bowl. NASHVILLE, Tennessee—For the first 12 minutes of Saturday’s Music City Bowl, the Auburn defense made the Maryland offense look like the second coming of the 2005 USC Trojans. In three possessions, the Terps went 75, 75 and 76 yards in three touchdown drives to take a commanding 21-0 lead. Even though the Tigers were never able to get competitive in the 31-13 loss, coach Ron Roberts and a defense filled with a bunch of inexperienced faces showed glimpses of some very positive things to build on heading into the 2024 season. Defensively we played really well defensively the second half, but it goes back to that standard,” Freeze said. “It's not okay just to play really well and you do your assignment for a half.” Auburn veteran linebacker Eugene Asante agrees with his head coach, saying sometimes it’s on the player to go out and get the job done. “There are so many things that go into it,” Asante said. “You can say ‘did they start slow?’ I think so much of it was that we’re in position to make those plays and we have to make those plays. That starts with myself. I have to look myself in the mirror and work on what I have to improve. It’s something we’ll look at and try to improve upon heading into next season.” Once Auburn settled into the game, the Auburn defense dominated Maryland the rest of the way. After racking up 226 yards on 19 plays to open the game, Maryland’s offense had just 84 yards on 39 plays in the final three quarters. On the field for a lot of that action were guys like Keldric Faulk and Bobby Jamison-Travis up front and Colton Hood, Kayin Lee, Terrance Love and Sylvester Smith in the secondary. With other young guys like Darron Reed up front and Tyler Scottalong with JC Hart in the secondary, there’s a strong base to build around for the Tigers. During bowl practices they also had the chance to see incoming freshmen Malik Blocton on the defensive line, linebackers DJ Barber, Joseph Phillips and Demarcus Riddick, and Kaleb Harrisin the secondary. After seeing those guys up close and in person throughout the bowl practices in Nashville, Asante believes the future is bright for this Auburn defense. “We’ve got so many young, talented guys coming in,” Asante said. “I have to understand that I have guys that depend on me, lean on me. I’m trying to develop those leadership skills and communicate with guys and allow them to flourish because I see a lot of great things in them. Coach Freeze did a great job of recruiting and we have to bring those guys up to speed. We’re going to need those guys. For myself, I just want to continue to help this team be the team it can be. I know it can be a special team.” When the dust had settled, Auburn fell to end the season, but for a young defense there were some things to build on. Faulk said now it’s time to do just that. “I mean, it shows that we’re resilient,” he said of the way they responded. “We’re not going to back down from nobody. We’ve been faced with too many challenges throughout this season to back down now. The second that we do, we’re not Auburn’s defense anymore. I feel like at first we weren’t playing like an Auburn defense, then the last three quarters we’re rolling on all cylinders. We were stopping them on third and fourth down like an Auburn defense should. We showed little glimpses of really great defense. I think we showed glimpses of really bad defense. That’s for us to go watch the film and really correct everything that we see on the film.”

collegefootballnews.com Maryland vs Auburn: TransPerfect Music City Bowl Recap, Final Score, What Happened, What It All Means Pete Fiutak 3–4 minutes Maryland beat Auburn 31-13 to win the TransPerfect Music City Bowl. What happened, who was the player of the game, and what does it all mean? Dec 30, 2023; Nashville, TN, USA; The Maryland Terrapins band chants before the game against the Auburn Tigers at Nissan Stadium. © Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports TransPerfect Music City Bowl Recap: Maryland 31, Auburn 13 Pete Fiutak on X | CFN on X College Football News on Facebook Pete Fiutak on Threads | CFN on Threads TransPerfect Music City Bowl What Happened - Maryland wasn’t exactly Maryland offensively without QB Taulia Tagovailoa, but Billy Edwards ran for a touchdown on the team’s first drive, hit Preston Howard for a five-yard score on the second drive, and the defense did the rest. - Maryland mixed it up on its third score with a thee-yard pass from Cameron Edge to Dylan Wade - for a 21-0 lead. Auburn finally got on the board with a good second quarter drive finishing with a three-yard Brandon Frazier touchdown catch, but … - The Terp D didn’t allow another Tiger score until the outcome was well in hand, Glendon Miller returned a pick for a touchdown, and in all it came up with four takeaways. TransPerfect Music City Bowl Player of the Game Billy Edwards Jr., QB Maryland He only completed 6-of-20 passes, but they went for 126 yards and a touchdown with no picks, and he came up with a game-leading 50 rushing yards and a score. Recommended for You TransPerfect Music City Bowl What It All Means - Mike Locksley now has three straight bowl wins and two straight eight-win seasons. Not since Ralph Friedgen won 31 games in three seasons from 2021 to 2023 has the program enjoyed this kind of success, and it happened without Taulia Tagovailoa and a slew of other key parts. - It’s just a bowl game, but considering how painful the loss to Alabama was, this would’ve been a nice way for Auburn to close out the first year under Hugh Freeze on a high note. Instead it’s a third straight year without a winning campaign - 1975 to 1977 was the last time that happened - and there’s only been one bowl win since the 2014 season. - The Auburn offense has to start working better next season. The turnovers in this were one thing, but the total inability to crank out any rushing yards on a consistent basis was the bigger issue. The Maryland defense is good, but the Tigers needed to come up with more than 2.2 yards per carry and couldn’t find any room. - Experts Picks For Every Bowl TransPerfect Music City Bowl Key Stats - Total Offense: Maryland 310, Auburn 300 - Yards Per Catch: Maryland 20.8, Auburn 10.7 - Auburn’s Hank Brown came up with a team-high 132 passing yards on a 7-of-9 game. Bowl Recaps, Schedule, Predictions

247sports.com McGriff expected to make a move to Texas AM Jason Caldwell 14–17 minutes Auburn assis.tant Wesley McGriff expected to move to Texas A&M. After moving off the field in October, Auburn assistant coach Wesley McGriff appears to be on the move again with Matt Zenitz from 247Sports reporting a move to Texas A&M for the veteran assistant coach. Following his third stint on the Plains with the Tigers, McGriff looks to be joining Mike Elko's staff in College Station as he takes over for the departed Jimbo Fisher. Coaching at Auburn twice under Gus Malzahn and most recently at Louisville, McGriff has also spent time at Ole Miss, Miami and other places during his career. Working alongside Zac Etheridge in the Auburn secondary since his hire last December, McGriff's move opens the door for Auburn to bring on another veteran assistant, Charles Kelly. In a move that was mentioned on Saturday but still hasn't been confirmed by Auburn, coach Hugh Freeze is expected to hire Kelly to coach the secondary in addition to having the role of co-coordinator with Ron Roberts. A former walk-on at Auburn and longtime coordinator in college, Kelly was at Colorado this past season and has also spent time at Alabama, Florida State and other schools. 'Hopefully he'll get a shot:' Auburn freshman QB Hank Brown impresses late in bowl loss 'Hank has incredible poise. I saw it every day when he was running the scout team, and he has very little protection and he stands in there and makes throw after throw after throw.' NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The cliche that the backup quarterback is the most popular player on the team was certainly true for Auburn on Saturday. Only for the Tigers — late in their uncompetitive loss to Maryland, 31-13 in the Music City Bowl — it was the backup to the backup. After Payton Thorne and Holden Geriner both struggled to get anything going against the Terrapins through the air, combining to complete 14-of-33 passes with two interceptions, Hugh Freeze let true freshman Hank Brown get his first career snaps late in the game. It only took four attempts for Brown to become Auburn’s top passer on the day. “It was great to see today,” Thorne said of Brown. “Hank is a good friend of mine. I’m a big fan of Hank. He’s worked really hard since he’s been here, and that was cool to see him go down the field today.” After Geriner’s interception on fourth down in Maryland territory, Freeze handed things over to Brown with 7:51 remaining. He immediately led Auburn on a touchdown drive that took 58 seconds. Brown made a quick throw to Camden Brown for a first down, then loaded up and hit Caleb Burton for 53 yards down to Maryland’s 1-yard line. Freshman running back Jeremiah Cobb immediately punched it in. The deep shot to Burton tied Auburn’s longest passing play of the season. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound true freshman connected on his first seven passes, including five straight on the next drive to get Auburn back into the red zone again. He threw incomplete to Shane Hooks on fourth down, but Freeze said Brown made the right read and that Hooks didn’t complete the route properly. Finishing 7-of-9 passing for 132 yards, Brown didn’t appear to have much hesitation slinging the ball around as soon as he checked in, and Freeze attributed a lot of that to the fact that he’s run Auburn’s scout-team offense all season, and his job is sometimes to make things difficult for the Tigers’ starting defense. He almost expected the pressure to come right away, and knew he had to be decisive and get the ball out quickly. “Hank has incredible poise,” Freeze said. “I saw it every day when he was running the scout team, and he has very little protection and he stands in there and makes throw after throw after throw. I think he has incredible poise for a freshman for sure. He has great humility. Wants to be taught. Wants to learn. Has a good IQ for the game. Understands timing.” It was a special couple series for Brown, a Nashville native who threw 47 touchdowns last season and won a state title at Lipscomb Academy just a few miles down the road, playing for Trent Dilfer. “He’ll know that offense as well as any person in that building after a couple months there,” Dilfer, now UAB’s head coach, told Auburn Undercover in May. “He’ll do the lonely work — the stuff that doesn’t get celebrated, so that he’s prepared. … He has all the skills it takes to become an NFL quarterback. I told him right before his senior year that if he continued to progress on the track we’re progressing him on, he’ll get drafted.” It was obviously a small sample size — late in a game that was already decided, against a Maryland defense that had already started celebrating — and Brown wasn’t necessarily running Auburn’s base scheme, simply dropping back and making a couple quick reads and rifling the ball. But there can’t be an argument made against the fact that the Tigers were much more explosive and efficient moving the football than any other point in the game. The true freshman had been an afterthought when discussing Auburn’s quarterback job for 2024. But after he generated some buzz for himself heading into the offseason — and Freeze called the quarterback spot “wide open” for next season — Brown’s name is certainly one that Auburn fans will continue to circle back to as an intriguing contender in the room moving forward. “I like the way he plays,” tight end Rivaldo Fairweather said. “He's really calm and composed and he's just a good kid, man. You’ve just got to keep going and keep playing hard, and hopefully he'll get a shot.” *** 60% OFF CHRISTMAS SALE: Subscribe to Auburn Undercover for the latest news and intel, podcasts, recruiting coverage and more ***

i sometimes wonder if it is worth the stress for that kind of money mr goo. i just could not handle the stress.

al.com Reports | Texas A&M expected to hire Auburn defensive secondary coach Wesley McGriff Published: Dec. 31, 2023, 11:02 a.m. ~2 minutes After one season back at Auburn, the Tigers’ secondary and cornerbacks’ coach Wesley McGriff is expected to leave The Plains and head west, joining Mike Elko’s assembling staff at Texas A&M, Billy Liucci of TexasAgs.com reported Sunday morning. McGriff joined Hugh Freeze’s staff at Auburn on Dec. 23, 2022, making for his third stint at Auburn. McGriff previously coached the Tigers in 2016 and again in 2019-20. Midway through the 2023 season, McGriff transitioned from his on-field coaching duties to take a role off the field. Freeze told reporters in October the change was the result of McGriff “dealing with a personal issue,” but confirmed McGriff was still with the program and was helping with locker room culture and in-house recruiting. The expected departure of McGriff comes on the heels of Saturday’s news that Auburn is expected to add Charles Kelly to its defensive staff. The addition of Kelly, who graduated from Auburn in 1990, would come after he spent one season with Deion Sanders as Colorado’s defensive coordinator. Should Sunday’s reports prove true, McGriff would be adding a new stop to an already lengthy list. Prior to joining Freeze’s staff a year ago, McGriff was Louisville’s defensive secondary coach in for the 2022 season. McGriff has also held jobs at Kentucky, Baylor, Miami, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Florida, among others. If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

al.com Everything Hugh Freeze said after Auburn’s 31-13 Music City Bowl loss to Maryland Published: Dec. 30, 2023, 7:24 p.m. 7–9 minutes OPENING STATEMENT: I don’t need anyone to tell me when we don’t measure up. That starts with me. I feel so awful for our incredible fans. It was incredible to see them, their support for us, and to not perform any better in games this year like this. I promise you that -- I don’t need someone to tell me I didn’t get it done. I think our staff and our young men, starting with our staff, starting with me, have got to create a standard of the way we consistently work, consistently compete, and figure out how to be a true team. That is my goal in 2024, and I’ll need these two to help me and the staff to help me, but it’s disappointing today for our incredible fans and our support from our administration that we didn’t perform any better. Congrats to Coach Locksley. They came prepared and certainly outplayed us. ON THE QUARTERBACK SITUATION AFTER THE LOSS: It’s wide open. I think Hank has something to him for sure. The guy threw 42 touchdowns, one pick his senior year in high school. There’s something to that. I’m constantly evaluating players, staff, everything, and if we see that my evaluation has been wrong, then we have to change gears and reevaluate to make us better, then that’s the steps we should make. That position should be an interesting one certainly in spring practice. ON THE IMPORTANCE OF AUBURN’S INCOMING CLASS OF WIDE RECEIVERS: Well, I love our wide receiver class. I think it’s one of the best in the country that we signed, and certainly that’s a place we need some depth and some added playmaking ability. So congratulations to Rivaldo (Fairweather) on that. Yes, the receiving corps coming in we were absolutely banking on them helping us and making us better and more diverse so we can do more things, but also we have to play around every position, and I didn’t think we protected well in the first half, didn’t think we ran the ball well in the first half, either, so it’s all of it. Defensively we played really well defensively the second half, but it goes back to that standard. It’s not okay just to play really well and you do your assignment for a half. But we are excited about the wide receivers coming in for sure. ON HANK BROWN’S SHOWING UNDER CENTER: Hank has incredible poise. I saw it every day when he was running the scout team, and he has very little protection and he stands in there and makes throw after throw after throw. I think he has incredible poise for a freshman for sure. He has great humility. Wants to be taught. Wants to learn. Has a good IQ for the game. Understands timing. Even the last throw that I thought the receivers should have kept coming, that’s kind of what Hank anticipated, but he anticipates throws really well, and he’s got great poise for a freshman. ON THE BIGGEST DISCONNECT IN THE LOCKER ROOM: don’t know that this is just a case for Auburn, but it’s certainly something that we are battling some. It’s just the disease of me. I think that’s in a lot of areas of life now, and we’re not exempt to it in our locker room. I think we’ve got to face it head on. It’s not everybody for sure, but there’s just a lot of things that I’m hopeful that can be a part of the Auburn football program that, man, we really do care, love, trust one another to put the team first. I think those are the ones who are going to excel in building sustainable programs that compete at a high level. We’re not the only ones to have to battle that, and you see some that are battling it pretty effectively. We’ve got to -- particularly when you’re disappointed and you’re not in the playoffs or you’re not in -- what do you do then? I think it’s those challenges that make football the best training ground there is for life, and there’s a lot of lessons that we need to learn for sure. ON AUBURN’S OFFENSIVE GAME PLAN COMING INTO SATURDAY: Well, obviously I don’t feel like it was an effective one. I didn’t get too involved in it for most of the part until this week because of recruiting, and really wanted to kind of evaluate everything about our program. We didn’t run the ball. It starts there. We have to go look at the run schemes that we had, and did we not play hard up front? It’s really hard for me to tell. But they really dominated the line of scrimmage against us. They did load the box now. They forced us to -- they had extra hats in the box for sure, and that’s when you’ve got to be able to throw it some. But we didn’t protect the passer real well. It wasn’t all the O-line. Sometimes the backs didn’t get the protection right. But anytime you struggle like we did, it’s not -- I don’t feel like the plan was great. ON AUBURN’S FIRST QUARTER COLLAPSE: Yeah, I was real surprised. Really thought defensively we had -- I know we were playing some young kids, but really thought we would start faster and could catch up with these guys. They hit us in a big screen on the first drive, and everything just kind of snowballed. But we had a ton of misalignments and miscommunications right in the early part of the game that really cost us. We’ve got to look at ourselves as coaches first to see why we weren’t more effective in getting those things communicated with our kids. ON WHAT HE WOULD’VE DONE DIFFERENT IN YEAR 1: Well, every game is different. If you go look at the Georgia game, I wish we would have protected better because we had some shots. If you go to the Ole Miss game, I wish we would have gone more tempo. If you go to the Alabama game, I wish we’d have been able to punch better and I wish we’d have taught 4th and 31 defense better. But ultimately you have to look at yourself as coaches. Our kids are going to make some mistakes sometimes, but in those critical moments, are our kids coached well enough to get it done, and when we don’t get it done, you have to look at -- I have to look at myself. Every game is different as to what you would have done differently, but you certainly don’t enjoy having to say that or feel that, but that’s the way I feel right now. We’re going to improve the roster and all of that, but we still could have gotten more out of this season, I believe, for our young men and our wonderful fans. ON HIS BIGGEST TAKEAWAY FROM SEASON 1: We’re incredibly blessed to be at Auburn, incredibly blessed by our administration and fans, and it hurts like heck to let them now and not compete on given days. But my takeaway is that I’m still as confident as ever that this can be an elite football program again, and it takes great recruiting, but it also takes player-led teams that put team first and the standard of the team every single day first. We’re still learning that, and we’ve got to demand it as coaches, and we can’t waver from it when we get back in January, and I’m looking forward to the leadership of our team doing that. If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

al.com 'In football, that can't happen': Inside Auburn's first-quarter collapse vs. Maryland Updated: Dec. 30, 2023, 7:09 p.m.|Published: Dec. 30, 2023, 6:50 p.m. 5–6 minutes Auburn Football ‘Everything just kinda snowballed’: Inside Auburn’s first-quarter collapse vs. Maryland NASHVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 30 - Auburn Linebacker Austin Keys (6) during the TransPerfect Music City Bowl game between the Auburn Tigers and the Maryland Terrapins at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, TN on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023. Photo by Zach Bland/Auburn TigersZach Bland/Auburn Tigers As the designated away team, Auburn made the call at the pregame coin toss. The call was tails, and tails it was. After winning the toss, Auburn elected to defer to the second half, meaning the Tigers would boot the opening kickoff away and give the ball to the Maryland’s offense to start the game. And considering the Terrapins’ offense was set to feature a new starting quarterback for the first time this season after Tualia Tagovailoa opted out of Saturday’s TransPerfect Music City Bowl, giving Maryland the first possession didn’t feel like a major risk as one would’ve expect Billy Edwards Jr. to need a bit to settle into his first start of the season. Instead, the Maryland offense drove 75 yards down the field and scored on just five plays. The Terrapins’ scoring drive was set up by a 61-yard chunk play – a quick screen pass from Edwards to Maryland running back Roman Hemby, who found a massive stretch of open, green turf after making Auburn’s first defender miss. Maryland would find the end zone on the very next play as Edwards plunged in for a rushing touchdown from two yards out. “They hit us in a big screen on the first drive and everything just kinda snowballed,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said after the game. And “snowballed” might’ve been putting it nicely as it felt like Maryland instead caused a first-quarter avalanche as the Terrapins piled 21 unanswered points on the Tigers en route to Maryland’s 31-13 Music City Bowl win. After Auburn’s defense suffered a gut punch on the first drive of the game, the Tigers looked to their offense to answer the call. Instead, Payton Thorne and Co. couldn’t find the phone, much less pick it up. The Tigers’ offense went three-and-out in their first two drives of the game. Auburn narrowly avoided a third three-and-out drive thanks to Oscar Chapman successfully executing a fake punt from inside the Tigers’ own 15-yard line. However, that gamble wouldn’t get the Tigers very far as Thorne and the Auburn offense eventually turned the ball over on downs, ending a 14-play, 42-yard drive that stalled near midfield. “I mean, they had that big play on offense, and we came out and went three-and-out at least twice in a row,” Thorne added. “We didn’t help our defense at all, and that’s on us.” Coming into Saturday’s matchup with the Terrapins, it was no secret the Tigers were going to be thin on defense – especially in the secondary as veteran defensive backs DJ James and Nehemiah Pritchett both opted out of the bowl game as they turned their attention to the 2024 NFL Draft. Jaylin Simpson was also absent from Saturday’s game, though it’s unclear if he opted out or was still nursing his nagging hamstring injury. Knowing Auburn’s situation in the secondary, Maryland head coach Mike Locksley made it a point to test Auburn’s young defensive backfield, while also challenging his pair of young and inexperienced quarterbacks. It was a decision that paid off as Edwards and Maryland’s freshman quarterback Cameron Edge shredded Auburn’s defense in the first quarter as they combined for 158 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns through the air. “I was real surprised,” Freeze said of Auburn’s early defensive struggles. “I know we were playing some young kids, but really thought we would start faster and catch up with these guys.” Eventually, Auburn’s defense settled in. Come the second half, Auburn held Maryland’s offense to just 41 total yards and just 1.7 yards per play. Unfortunately for the Tigers, however, “eventually” didn’t come until the second half. And at that point, the damage had been done as Auburn trailed Maryland 24-7. “We have to wake up and understand we have to be ready to play a football game,” said Auburn lineback Eugene Asante. “Regardless of the circumstances, we have to go out there and execute. I pride myself on being a guy that gets guys going, and I think I needed to do that more today and I didn’t do it early on. That’s on me. I can’t be flat. We were flat. I think guys got off the bus sluggish and we adjusted in the second half, but in football, that can’t happen.” If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

al.com Cohen: Auburn has QB questions again. Will an elite incoming WR class solve them? Published: Dec. 31, 2023, 6:05 a.m. 7–9 minutes The future waited about 700 miles away. That future may not have known what was transpiring at Nissan Stadium on an overcast Saturday afternoon in Nashville, Tennessee. It may not have seen another point in why it may be so crucial. In the present, that future just was trying to get ready for another showcase game. On a practice field at the ESPN Wide World of Sports near Orlando, Florida, were 5-star Auburn signees Cam Coleman and Perry Thompson. The two wide receivers were practicing for the Under Armour high school All-America game to be played this week. On a football field at Nissan Stadium, a depleted and deficient group of Auburn pass catchers reminded the 700-mile-away future of why they picked Auburn in the first place. They are needed. As the overcast turned to night and busses loaded with stunned and saddened Auburn players following a 31-13 Music City Bowl loss to Maryland, it would be hard for head coach Hugh Freeze not to turn his mind right toward 2024, right toward the future, right toward Coleman and Thompson and all that can’t arrive soon enough. Right toward the gamble he’s now had to backtrack on. Throughout the cold day, Freeze seemed to roam the sidelines with a look of helpless frustration. Long before Auburn sputtered out in its final game of the season to finish the year with a losing 6-7 record, Freeze had appeared to mentally turn the page toward the 2024 roster, essentially opening admitting his 2023 team — while inches away from multiple top-10 wins — wasn’t good enough. He sat at a postgame interview table alongside tight end Rivaldo Fairweather. Fairweather had set an Auburn record on this day for receptions by a tight end in a single season. But the stunned, introspective look on his face wouldn’t show it. For what he’d done — catching five of seven tough, contested targets for 45 yards — wasn’t enough on its own. After four wide receivers and one tight end from an already struggling group of pass catchers entered the transfer portal, Auburn found itself even thinner at its weakest position. It meant for some old-school formations in the Auburn offense including Fairweather lined up as an outside receiver. Fellow tight ends Brandon Frazier and Micah Riley were used in multiple positions, too. Yet when Auburn was forced to throw with a large deficit against Maryland, quarterback Payton Thorne hardly found a tight end, running back or wide receiver with any separation. A deep ball in the first half to wide receiver Camden Brown which was nearly intercepted because Brown essentially did not make a play on the ball was emblematic of the stagnant play of the wide receiver corps all season. Thorne threw for 84 yards on 13 completions. Freeze has been aware of the clear weakness in Auburn’s passing game which ranks among the 10 worst in the nation. He has not been shy to suggest Auburn’s solution for the position is not on this roster. So he pursued wide receivers with added emphasis at the high school level. Auburn inked Coleman and Thompson as well as four-star receivers Malcolm Simmons and Bryce Cain during December’s early signing period. It added transfer wide receiver Robert Lewis from Georgia State and Cal quarterback-turned-wide receiver Sam Jackson V. “The receiving corps coming in we were absolutely banking on them helping us and making us better and more diverse so we can do more things, but also we have to play around every position, and I didn’t think we protected well in the first half, didn’t think we ran the ball well in the first half, either, so it’s all of it,” Freeze said Saturday. Yet it leaves Freeze with a question he’ll have to hope he’s right about: is that alone going to be enough to fix a flawed offense? Freeze has already laid out his hand with statements between Auburn’s Iron Bowl and Music City Bowl losses. His logic centers on that if he can surround Thorne with enough high-end receiving talent — similar to what he had on a 2021 Michigan State team that won the Peach Bowl — then Thorne can be a successful quarterback. So knowing the receivers he was about to add in Auburn’s 2024 signing class, Freeze gave Thorne his vote of confidence as the quarterback for next year as the team opened bowl practices. “If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but that’s my belief,” Freeze said. Yet two weeks later, that message has quickly changed. “I’m constantly evaluating players, staff, everything, and if we see that my evaluation has been wrong, then we have to change gears and reevaluate to make us better, then that’s the steps we should make,” Freeze said after the Music City Bowl loss. It’s a poignant statement and change of heart from Freeze. It strikes as a realization that the issues his offense faces going into next season won’t be solved alone by wide receivers that, on paper, are more talented than what Auburn currently has. After the Music City Bowl, Freeze said that his top quarterback position is “wide open” going into next season. While Thorne hardly received any help from his pass catchers, he did not help himself either. His lone interception was a poor read where he entirely failed to see Maryland defensive back Glen Miller. Miller picked off the pass and returned it for a touchdown. Thorne threw a second interception, but it was called back because of a penalty. It wasn’t the first time a significant mistake on a read from Thorne led to a costly interception. It wasn’t even the first time in Nashville this season that happened to Thorne. He had a very similar interception in Auburn’s win against Vanderbilt. Adding four — and potentially five if Auburn can flip five-star Saraland wide receiver Ryan Williams from his Alabama commitment — elite high school talents doesn’t fix that problem. “I believe that if we get the right pieces around (Thorne) and Holden and Hank, I think our quarterback room is going to be fine next year,” Freeze said at the beginning of bowl practices. “That is my belief. It’s what drives me to get the right pieces around them.” Freeze has tied himself to this belief. For the style in which he’s trying to build Auburn, he has to be right. But he also now seems to have stepped back to review his thoughts. Implicitly, it may be why he re-opened his quarterback competition. His gamble on a step forward from Thorne may not be simple. Whether that means a change at quarterback or a change in his surrounding pieces — whether that be staff or players — Freeze now plans to evaluate. He will evaluate the roles of Holden Geriner and Hank Brown behind Thorne. He will evaluate four-star quarterback signee Walker White. He will evaluate offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery. It’s unclear if that evaluation may stray further into the transfer portal. On paper, the pieces around the quarterback — when that future makes its way to Auburn to join an already loaded running back room and the most prolific receiving tight end in Auburn’s history — are going to be better in 2024. Will that mean anything if the man throwing the ball isn’t getting the job done? Before the Music City Bowl, Freeze thought he had his answer at quarterback. Instead, his gamble has a new layer. Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

al.com Hugh Freeze says the 'disease of me' plagues Auburn's locker room. What does he mean? Updated: Dec. 31, 2023, 10:03 a.m.|Published: Dec. 31, 2023, 9:49 a.m. 5–6 minutes In New York City, the ball will drop in Times Square late Sunday night. In Nashville, where Hugh Freeze and the Auburn football team have spent the last week as they prepped for and played in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl, the city will ring in the New Year with a “music note drop” at Bicentennial Park. But after Saturday’s ugly, 31-13 loss to the Maryland Terrapins to put a bookend on the 2023 season, the chances of Freeze and the Tigers sticking around to celebrate the New Year are slim. After all, Freeze revealed his New Year’s resolution Saturday night. And considering the depth to it, it’s probably best he get started working on it as soon as possible. “I think our staff and our young men, starting with our staff, starting with me, have got to create a standard of the way we consistently work, consistently compete and figure our how to be a true team,” Freeze said. “That is my goal in 2024.” Saturday’s comments from Freeze weren’t the first of the season in that vein. “The culture has gotten better. The standard has gotten better. The accountability has gotten better,” Freeze said in a press conference on Nov. 27 – two days after Auburn’s regular season finale against Alabama. “I’m hopeful I can continue to build the community aspect of what a team really is.” In that same answer, Freeze mentioned things like living in an era that means “dating through Snapchat” and how he wishes players would “hang up the headsets” and instead of playing video games after practice, go have real conversations with one another. It’s crystal-clear Auburn’s locker room isn’t a tight-knit and connected as Freeze would like. After Saturday’s loss to Maryland, when asked about the team’s disconnect, Freeze chalked it up to a disease he believes is plaguing society. “It’s just the disease of me. I think that’s in a lot of areas of life now and we’re not exempt to it in our locker room,” Freeze said. “I think we’ve got to face it head on.” In the words of author and legendary NBA head coach Pat Riley, the “disease of me” is the diagnosis for those who put “personal agendas before organizational success.” And that’s what Freeze believes is plaguing Auburn’s locker room. In talking with some of Auburn’s players, they tend to agree with their head coach. “Completely agree with coach,” Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne said following Saturday’s postseason loss when asked about player-led leadership. “We did not have enough of that this year by any means. It showed.” Thorne added he was looking forward to getting “the guys who need to be there” together. And even if it takes five hours, them sitting down and deciding what they need to be and what they want their future to look like. “We have to decide what we want. And when we decide what we want, we’re going to write it down and then we have a template to hold each other accountable to,” Thorne said. “That will be something that will be happening soon.” Meanwhile, linebacker Eugene Asante is looking forward to establishing the standard during winter workouts. “It 100% starts with winter workouts,” Asante said. “Because you’re putting your body in a condition to where it’s hard, you don’t want to do it, your body’s worn down -- but that’s when the mental game kicks in. Instead of them leaning on quitting or just tapping out, it’s allowing them to push themselves beyond their limits. And that’s what shows up on the football field.” For freshman defensive end Keldric Faulk, setting the standard starts with the intricate and often-overlooked things like arriving to team meetings on time and looking coaches in the eyes when they’re speaking to you. “The standard starts in meetings,” Faulk said. “It’s little stuff like that.” Whether establishing the standard starts with a five-hour meeting, winter workouts or making eye contact with coaches, it’s evident it’s something that needs attention. And nothing anyone said pointed to that more than a quip from tight end Rivaldo Fairweather. “Coach Freeze said, ‘We’re going to set a standard here’ and it’s a lot of loose leashes around here on this team that we need to get rid of and just find a group of people that’s going to really come together as a team and lock in and put their life on the line to win a game here,” said Fairweather. However, as important as it is for Auburn’s players to recognize the disconnect and map out plans to resolve it, in the grand scheme of things, the fix starts with Freeze. The good news is he knows that. “I don’t need anyone to tell me when we don’t measure up. That starts with me.” Freeze said to open his press conference Saturday night. “To not perform any better in games this year like this, I promise you that — I don’t need someone to tell me I didn’t get it done.” If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

so the thread gets moved and no mention of help?i am trying to post articles.

fter another dismal game from Auburn’s offense, where does the blame go now? Published: Dec. 30, 2023, 7:13 p.m. 5–7 minutes Auburn fans frustrated after tough loss to Maryland in Music City Bowl Why Auburn has found itself unable to maintain consistency this season may trace its way back to an offensive coaches’ meeting room that has appeared to be a brain trust with differing means to achieve their ends. And after a 31-13 loss to Maryland in the Music City Bowl to close out a 6-7 season, that starts with head coach Hugh Freeze and his inconsistent involvement. That see-saw began before the 2023 season with Freeze giving primary play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery and significant struggles of the offense that followed. After Auburn lost to Ole Miss in October, seven games into the season, Freeze claims he “put his foot down” and took more involvement in offensive planning. That seemed to be what was credited for a turnaround during Auburn’s three-game SEC winning streak late in the year. Freeze commented at points this season on how the coaches he hired would allow him to focus on recruiting. But he had to step back on that plan to help with the offense. During the regular season when Freeze was asked about the well-done job of defensive coordinator Ron Roberts, Freeze said he likes to step out of his assistant’s way until they prove they can’t do the job. At that point in the year, Freeze had already stated how he’d stepped in more with the offense. The history made Freeze’s comments about what he described as a poor offensive game plan against Maryland, especially fascinating. “Well, obviously I don’t feel like it was an effective one,” Freeze said after the Music City Bowl loss. “I didn’t get too involved in it for most of the part until this week because of recruiting, and really wanted to kind of evaluate everything about our program.” Based on Freeze’s comments throughout the season, it would be fair to assume the offense was good when Freeze was heavily involved in preparation, and bad when he wasn’t. Whether that’s the full story is unclear. “I think honestly he’s always been a part of it,” Montgomery said Friday before the Music City Bowl. “We went into this with that mindset. He’s always had influence on it from fall camp to now and will continue to do that. We went into this with our eyes wide open with the honest approach of trying to put the best thing on the field for our players and giving them the best opportunity to go win.” Freeze was willing to take blame on himself after the loss, saying the criticism should start with him as the head coach. But statements that he wasn’t heavily involved with the plan until after the Dec. 20-22 early signing period and then saying it was not a good plan instead is passing blame around the staff. The main complaint Freeze had centered on not running the ball well. Auburn only had 76 rushing yards and averaged 2.2 yards per carry. Freeze’s blame there went not to the players’ execution but more to the schemes Auburn used. “We have to go look at the run schemes that we had, and did we not play hard up front,” Freeze said. “It’s really hard for me to tell. But they really dominated the line of scrimmage against us. They did load the box now.” That inability to run the ball plus a three-score deficit in the game’s first quarter meant Auburn essentially had to rely on its passing game — which has been among the 10 worst in the nation this season by yards per game. Both Payton Thorne and Holden Geriner struggled mightily. Thorne completed only 13 passes out of 27 for 84 yards. Geriner only completed one pass. Third-string quarterback Hank Brown was the only productive passer. The blame could go on the offensive line’s poor blocking. It could go on the schemes Freeze mentioned. It could go on ineffective quarterback play from Thorne that led Freeze to backtrack on his previous vote of confidence in his starting quarterback. It could go on a group of pass catchers that have failed to create separation or any form of dynamic contributions throughout the 2023 season. The continually spreading blame surrounding the team’s inconsistency leaves Auburn further emphasizing questions it seemed to believe it had solved. Freeze’s evaluations going into 2024 will focus on a quarterback position that could have a competition he wasn’t previously expecting. And it could take a reflection on an offensive staff that Freeze on multiple occasions, including Saturday, has suggested did not get the job done as needed. Or at least not done his way. “I’m constantly evaluating players, staff, everything, and if we see that my evaluation has been wrong, then we have to change gears and reevaluate to make us better, then that’s the steps we should make,” Freeze said. “That position should be an interesting one certainly in spring practice.” Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

any idea why i have to verify i am a human before i can start a new thread? i have no idea where the blame goes but it happened in the nest AND the basketball site. this is weird. but guys i f i have to jump through these hoops my article days are over. heck someone might be playing with me which is fine because i love a good joke.you guys have any ideas?

nothing else new so far folks this morning.......................

i am confused as to what this means? my apologies it is early and i am on my first sip.