Bad weather during the Auburn spring game made things especially difficult for Hugh Freeze.
New Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze will have to find his starting quarterback, one way or another.
Freeze was hired away from Liberty to help revamp the struggling Tigers offense. Although he has a trio of candidates to choose from internally in Robby Ashford, TJ Finley and Holden Geriner, Freeze may have to dip into the transfer portal to find a solution to a problem that was not solved in spring practice. A race that was too close to call was undermined by bad weather on Saturday.
Look at how miserable Freeze was before toe met leather in Auburn’s rain-soaked spring game.
"We were gonna to try and air it out to see if we can throw the football a bit."
— Connor O'Gara (@cjogara) April 8, 2023
A wet Hugh Freeze, changing plans amidst soggy spring game conditions.
Also, get my man @ChrisDoering to a beach after this. pic.twitter.com/iIZqYVpPEy
Saturday Down South’s Connor O’Gara pointed out that Auburn had no completed passes in the first quarter, one pass completed for positive yardage in the first half, several drops throughout the exhibition contest and a grand total of five completed passes for the entire spring game.
What a disaster!
Given that Auburn’s two biggest rivals are Alabama and Georgia, you can easily see why this is a massive issue for the Tigers going forward.
Hugh Freeze gained nothing in QB evaluation from drenched Auburn spring game
Look. I am not going to criticize Auburn for trying to do the right thing and have a spring game at Jordan-Hare. The Tigers have great fans and they deserve to watch their favorite team scrimmage in their college football cathedral. It is just unfortunate that the weather would not cooperate. This is why it is such a tricky proposition to hold spring games in the early part of April or in late March.
Right now, you would have to roll with Ashford as the starter because Geriner is unproven and Finley is consistently inconsistent. Unfortunately, Ashford’s elevated play in Philip Montgomery’s system may not be enough to keep pace with the Tigers’ second-tier rivals in SEC play. In time, they may challenge the Dawgs and the Tide, but that feels like a year or two out at the very least.
Ultimately, this is a major bummer to end what could have been a very positive spring for the Auburn faithful. Freeze is polarizing, but he is a good head coach, one that will probably get the Tigers back to good by around 2024. However, he knows how unforgiving the SEC can be from his previous run leading Ole Mis. He has more resources than in Oxford now, but this is so frustrating.
Don’t be shocked if Freeze dips into the transfer portal once spring practice reach its conclusion.
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