This is an opinion column.
Hugh Freeze said it without saying it.
In a SEC Media Week awash in words, words and more words, the Auburn coach stood at the podium in Dallas and expressed the ultimate faith in his quarterback.
No pressure, he didn’t say.
But Payton Thorne’s challenge was clear as the second-year head coach and second-year passer made the media rounds Thursday.
This is a quarterback who finished last year near the bottom of most major statistical measures within the SEC. He led an offense that ended the season on a three-game losing streak that included the 31-10 nightmare against New Mexico State and a listless 31-13 Music City Bowl loss to Maryland.
What Thorne didn’t have in that span or really at any point last year was a game-changing receiver.
Not a single Tiger had more than 400 receiving yards a year ago.
A classic chicken or the egg in terms of blame for a passing game that ranked dead last in passing yards per game within the SEC.
Well, we’ll get a better idea this fall when the receiving talent figures to take a monster leap.
The arrival of transfer receivers KeAndre Lambert-Smith (Penn State) and Robert Lewis (Georgia State) brings experienced talent to complement a star-studded freshman class. Former five-star Cam Coleman flashed his potential in spring practice while top-50 prospect Perry Thompson arrived this summer.
Bottom line: Thorne will have weapons around him. We’ll see if he has the game to match it.
“I mean, Dre caught 75 balls last year at Penn State in a pretty good league,” Freeze said on the SEC Network set Thursday. “So I think all of that gives Payton even more confidence. So he’s even more confident in the chemistry he senses from us and he’s like ‘I really think my guy can win at the top in this route so I can turn it loose and I’m not hesitant.’”
That’s honestly a huge point to be made in the quarterback/receiver dynamic. A quarterback can be paralyzed in the pocket if there’s no trust in how a receiver can finish the route. Freeze noted an unhealthy combination there “creates pressure and bad decisions.”
Freeze famously said he “couldn’t bring myself” to spend upwards of $1 million on a quarterback in the transfer portal. Either that means they took some swings and missed, or he has some real faith that the problem last year wasn’t Thorne.
“He knows he has to produce,” Freeze said from the podium Thursday.
Perhaps the name to remember if looking on the bright side of this situation is Bo Wallace.
A quarterback who began his career at Arkansas State, transferred to East Mississippi Community College and then landed at Ole Miss compares in certain ways to Thorne.
A three-year starter under Freeze in Oxford, Wallace wasn’t necessarily among the top quarterbacks in the SEC. Wallace did not have a pro career after Ole Miss, but he had a few big seasons early in Freeze’s run in SEC coaching.
They squeezed all the potential out of Wallace by surrounding him with elite talent. He had pass catchers like future first-rounders Laquon Treadwell (an All-American) and Evan Engram along with Donte Moncrief and Quincy Adeboyejo among others.
Like Thorne, Wallace wasn’t afraid to take off and run if the opportunity presented itself.
Having Jarquez Hunter as the SEC’s top returning rusher will also help Thorne with balance because this Tiger offense shouldn’t be one-dimensional. In fact, Freeze said he expects the ground game to be the strength with Hunter (159 carries, 909 yards, 5.7 avg.) returning to the backfield.
Opening with five straight home games — the first four of which should be penciled in as wins — will help sharpen the chemistry between Thorne and his new group of passing-game targets.
It gets real from there with Oklahoma coming to town Sept. 28 followed by trips to preseason No. 1 Georgia and potential top-10 Missouri.
We should have a good idea if how Freeze’s faith in Thorne paid off by mid-October.
Thorne has the talent around him and experience in the SEC after arriving as a transfer.
It worked when Freeze trusted Wallace when he rescued Ole Miss from a pit deeper than he found at Auburn.
They also teamed up to beat Alabama in Wallace’s final season.
No pressure.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter@ByCasagrandeor onFacebook.
