Auburn QB Payton Thorne takes the blame for the Tigers' Week 2 loss: "It starts with me, personally"

Auburn Tigers quarterback Payton Thorne has had an underwhelming start to the 2024 season. He was at his worst in the Tigers' 21-14 loss to the California Golden Bears on Saturday, going 14 of 27 for 165 yards, resulting in one touchdown and four interceptions.

During Tuesday's episode of the "Next Round" podcast, Thorne, who was under scrutiny from the Week 2 game, took responsibility for the humiliating home loss to the Golden Bears and spoke about how he is seeking to improve.

"Disappointing, frustrating weekend, especially in front of our fans at home," Payton Thorne said. "As you look back at the film, I always see that there's a lot of things to clean up.

"It starts with me, personally, as I watch the film, you know I'm looking at where my eyes are, where my reads are, and making sure that I'm playing as crisp as I can, so obviously there's stuff to clean up there, and each guy looks at himself individually and tries to learn from that tape, and it's Tuesday now, so that's behind us, and we're focused on this weekend."

Payton Thorne defended by Hugh Freeze

Since transferring from Michigan State, Payton Thorne has led the Auburn Tigers to a 7-8 record, accounting for the discourse around his role in the team's struggles since last season.

In the games he has played, Thorne has accounted for a massive fourteen interceptions, with last week's game against the California Golden Bears being his worst performance in an Auburn jersey.

During his weekly news conference, coach Hugh Freeze, who opted against signing a quarterback from the transfer portal, revealed why he has not dropped the underperforming quarterback despite growing calls to do so from the Tigers fanbase.

“The struggle with it is that it’s really hard to not play a young man — whether it’s Payton or whoever else it is — it’s really hard for me to not play a young man that is consistently the best performer in practice, over and over and over and over again,” Freeze said.

“His execution of the offense, it’s been pretty clear to all of us throughout fall camp and throughout the practice weeks and everything, his performance and his understanding of what we want to do has been better than the others.

“He’s the highest performer in practice and preparation, which obviously has led to us giving him the starting nod. But there’s got to be a carryover into the game."

The pressure will be on Hugh Freeze to drop Payton Thorne should his struggles continue in the foreseeable future. The Tigers have freshmen Walker White and Hank Brown, as well as redshirt sophomore Holden Geriner behind Thorne.

Auburn will next play the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN2 or ESPNU.