Film Room: How Auburn helped Hank Brown (and vice versa) in his first start
The Tigers needed to show something different on offense after a frustrating Cal loss — and it wasn't just the new starting quarterback.
QB Hank Brown (Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)
Although there wouldn’t be anything definitive to take away from a paycheck home game against the worst defense in FBS, Hugh Freeze and his offensive staff knew Auburn had to do things differently after falling flat yet again in a loss to Cal.
So Freeze made a tough but sensible decision: He decided to start redshirt freshman quarterback Hank Brown over ultra-experienced senior Payton Thorne.
While Thorne had played a lot more college football than Brown and was a multi-year team captain, he was also 0-for against FBS opponents with a winning record during his time on the Plains and just had a four-interception game.
“I just felt like we left so many plays out there, winning football plays… and I couldn’t put my finger on why, because I know (Thorne) has the understanding of it,” Freeze said after Auburn’s 45-19 win over New Mexico. “I just felt like this is what was best for our team. If he keeps playing well, it will be a permanent fix. If not, maybe it wakes everybody else up and spurs them to be better prepared and make better decisions.”
But Auburn didn’t choose to simply plug Brown into the same game plan it had used with Thorne. Instead, the Tigers’ offense evolved around their young gunslinger, and the results — for the most part — were quite positive against New Mexico.
It wasn’t a coincidence that Brown’s first career start also happened in the first 20-carry game of Jarquez Hunter’s four-year stint with Auburn. The Tigers also spread the ball around much more, both in terms of personnel and passing destination, than what they did a week earlier in the Cal loss.
“You can see where we're going,” tight end Micah Riley said. “We're trying to get it around, trying to figure out who the playmakers are and who's gonna make stuff happen. With Hank, it being his first game starting, I think they were trying to get everybody the ball and see what he can do.”
It wasn’t perfect, and it also came against — again — the worst defense in the FBS. Yet there were adjustments made by Auburn’s offense after another no-show against a quality opponent, and it wasn’t just the big one at starting quarterback.
For a team that might be moving forward with a new full-time signal-caller, there are building blocks available for Auburn after Brown’s first career start. There are also reasons for cautious optimism after seeing what Brown brings to the table as QB1.
“There's nothing like experience, and his has been very, very limited to probably, what, a handful of possessions,” Freeze said. “You could count (them) on one hand. And now he's got a full game to look at and learn from. … So, he'll have a lot on his plate next week. But there's nothing like experience, for sure.”
In this week’s Film Room, let’s take a closer look at three big areas in which Auburn showed something different on offense against New Mexico — and how the Tigers could use them to improve their attack as they head into a much tougher SEC slate.
A real quick draw from a gunslinger
Last week against Cal, Thorne had a pretty efficient game on passes that traveled five or fewer yards in the air (9-10) but had almost as many attempts on balls of 15-plus yards, with a fraction of the success (1-8). Additionally, Thorne only attempted four short (fewer than 10 air yards) passes between the numbers against Cal.
The passing chart looked quite different for Brown against New Mexico. For starters, he only attempted three passes of 15-plus air yards, and he hit all three of them for deep gains downfield. Brown also attempted 10 short passes between the numbers — more than twice the amount Thorne had against Cal.