Hugh Freeze Makes Pointless Claim After Auburn Loses to Arkansas

Auburn Tigers freshman quarterback Hank Brown threw three interceptions and was benched for incumbent senior starter Payton Thorne in a day marred by offensive inefficiency in Saturday’s 24-14 home loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks.

For Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman, it was a much-needed win to move to 3-1 on the season and momentarily cool his hot seat. For Auburn, it was a game that raised even further questions about the state of the roster, and more specifically, the quarterback position.

Despite the poor showing on Saturday in front of a sellout home crowd at Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze couldn’t help but make a pointless claim in his weekly Monday night coach’s show Tiger Talk, where he discussed Arkansas as an opponent.

“I mean no offense whatsoever to Arkansas or to Cal,” Freeze said. “I love Sam Pittman and I hope he wins the rest of his games, but I’m telling you the hard truth is [if] we play them nine more times, we’d beat them nine times, and that’s what’s hard to take.”

“And it’s hard for our fans, I’m sure, and it’s certainly hard for us.”

It’s certainly appearing less and less likely that Auburn is going bowling in Freeze’s second season on the job. Auburn is now 2-2 on the season and hosts No. 21 Oklahoma this weekend, followed by two road trips to No. 2 Georgia and No. 11 Missouri. No. 24 Texas A&M and No. 4 Alabama await in late November.

With five ranked opponents left, as well as Kentucky, Vanderbilt and UL Monroe, the road for the Tigers won’t be easy. In the SEC, coaches generally aren’t afforded the luxury of time, so Freeze will need to come up with some answers quickly to get the season turned around.