Auburn has gotten off to a rocky start to the 2024 season and has already swapped starting quarterbacks twice as the organization looks to improve at the position and overall.

In Saturday’s game against OklahomaABC station Jordan Rodgers spoke about a recent conversation he had with the Tigers coach Hugh Freeze.

Of course, Freeze was a little annoyed because he was so open about how bad his quarterback play was this season. For Rodgers, that’s just part of coaching.

“I love the honesty. We often like to complicate football,” said Rodgers. “Sometimes it’s just like, ‘Hey, you should have thrown it here and you threw it to the other team.’ And I actually watched a movie on Friday, yesterday, where Hugh Freeze was in his office just going through some of these things. He said, ‘That’s what I want to show my quarterback. Don’t make the play that’s the hardest, make the play that’s right in front of you.’ And I think that’s what he has to get out of Payton Thorne.”

Thorne seems to be gaining new momentum from his bench press Hank Brownand his second life as a starter when he played against Oklahoma.

The former Michigan State The quarterback transfer opened the game completing 9 of 14 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns. Early in the contest, he threw touchdown strikes of 48 yards and 31 yards.

And he didn’t turn it over. This is exactly what Freeze was looking for.

Whatever Auburn changed or whatever Thorne got to grips with seems to be working. And Freeze admitted that he might also tweak some things on his site.

“I love it. “That’s what I miss about playing, just being in the film room and talking about ball,” Rodgers said. “You know, he took over a lot of property too. He says, “Look, I have to call some better plays.” And he went through a few scenarios where the call could have been better. But there are a lot of decisions that need to be improved from the quarterback position.”

With an early 14-7 lead over Oklahoma, Auburn appears poised to turn things around. This isn’t a big surprise for Rodgers.

He summed up Auburn’s problems early in the season quite succinctly.

“This team doesn’t have an offensive problem,” he said. “They are one of the best in the country in terms of yards per play. They have a turnover problem right now.”

Eliminate these and Thorne and the Tigers might just be cooking. Early Saturday, that certainly appears to be the case.