The timing is perfect for an Auburn quarterback change

The 2024 season is not off to a good start on the plains, and it all starts at the quarterback position. For Auburn, this was supposed to be a year of great improvement. Instead, it's just more of the same.

Saturday's home loss to Cal was an absolutely brutal watch. The team was uninspired for most of the game, and against a Bears squad that is anything but elite, Auburn looked like the far less talented team.

The Tigers still, frankly, should have won the game. Auburn ran the ball well enough to win, picking up 4 yards per carry. Cal committed 5 more penalties than Auburn did. The Bears picked up only 230 yards through the air and barely eclipsed 100 on the ground.

Payton Thorne, and his 4 interceptions, proved to be Auburn's undoing.

He's the first Tiger to throw that many picks in a game since Brandon Cox in 2007 against Georgia. It's not hyperbole to say Thorne's performance against Cal is the worst by an Auburn passer in the millennium.

In 15 games as a Tiger, Thorne has thrown for 2,242 yards, 21 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, perfectly average, mediocre numbers.

As the quarterback of an SEC team, where the schedule features Georgia, Alabama, and Ole Miss, Thorne simply is not good enough. The jury is no longer out on this, the verdict is in. It's time to move on.

How convenient, then, that Auburn's next opponent is New Mexico.

No, this is not the pesky Jerry Kill New Mexico State program that upset the Tigers a year ago. This is the Bronco Mendenhall-coached New Mexico Lobos. They're 0-2 this year, with losses to Arizona and FCS Montana State.

Auburn is a nearly 30-point favorite in this game.

What better situation to roll out a new quarterback?

Why not let Holden Geriner or Hank Brown get a win as the new starter under their belts before SEC play starts? Wouldn't it galvanize the team to have a fresh start on life with Thorne, the quarterback who has undone them time and time again, in the rearview mirror?

After New Mexico, Arkansas comes to town. That's a very winnable conference game. The new starter could build some serious momentum heading into a stretch of the schedule that features Oklahoma, Georgia, and Missouri.

Or, Hugh Freeze could keep trying to make Thorne work. All reports indicate that is the direction he'll go. It's the uninspired move, just like staying put with Thorne and not pursuing anyone in the transfer portal.

For a guy in Freeze who made his name breaking the rules and beating Nick Saban with high-powered, exciting Ole Miss teams, his time at Auburn has been extremely bland. Bland is fine when you're winning, but when you're losing? There's no quicker way to lose the support of your fan base and the infrastructure around you.

Auburn has a chance to do the exciting this Saturday, and immediately re-inject some serious energy into the program. Instead, Freeze will likely do the boring, and a definitive ceiling will be placed on this team's 2024 potential.

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