Auburn's Payton Thorne says he didn't change Hugh Freeze's 4th-and-1 call against Georgia
Auburn football still can't seem to get out of its own way, which was proved evident by an apparent miscommunication during the Tigers' 31-13 loss to Georgia in Week 6.
Quarterback Payton Thorne and the Tigers (2-4, 0-3 SEC) faced a fourth-and-1 on their own 44-yard line to start the fourth quarter against the Bulldogs. Thorne was stuffed on what appeared to be a zone read, where he kept the ball to himself on the rush. The play sums up Auburn's season so far.
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❌❌❌❌ = Turnover on downs!
📺 ABC #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/q9FTkEaBbn— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) October 5, 2024
After the game, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said Thorne didn't run the play that was called, and that Thorne changed the play at the line of scrimmage.
"Yeah, he absolutely didn’t go with what we had called," Freeze said Sunday. "Payton’s a thinker. He knows football. He decided to try to run some type of zone read there. I think everybody was a little confused. But we definitely weren’t on the same page there. I should have used one of our timeouts there when I saw things were going awry.”
Thorne recalled the situation much differently on Tuesday during an appearance on "The Next Round."
“I won’t get too much into it,” Thorne said. “I would explain what happened, but I don’t think that would help our team. I’ll keep that one in-house, but I will say I did not check any play.”
Thorne said he didn't change the play, which means there was likely some sort of miscommunication on the call. Either way, sounds like there's still some problems with Auburn's offense, as Freeze said the play was supposed to be a dive left with running back Jarquez Hunter.
“It was something we talked about on the sideline,” Thorne said Tuesday. “I said what I saw and what it was. Obviously, our coaches saw after the game when they watched the game what I was saying. We’ve handled it.”
The Tigers have lost four of their last five games, three of them at home against Cal, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Turnovers have been a major issue, with Auburn ranking 131st of 133 FBS teams with 15 giveaways this season.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Payton Thorne disagrees with Hugh Freeze's assessment of 4th-and-1 call