Who is Hank Brown? All we know about Auburn’s starting QB ahead of Week 3 matchup

The Auburn Tigers will have a new starting quarterback for their Week 3 matchup against the New Mexico Lobos. Hank Brown will take over from longtime QB Payton Thorne. Brown has seen limited action for Auburn so far.

Who is he, where did he go to high school and what can he bring to the Auburn Tigers?

Who is Hank Brown?

Brown is from Nashville, Tennessee, and played high school football at Lipscombe Academy in the same city. 247sports.com ranked Brown as the 60th-best QB in the 2023 class and the 34th-best prospect from the state of Tennessee.

Brown originally committed to Liberty University, but when Hugh Freeze was named the new coach of the Auburn Tigers, he flipped his commitment.

He received offers from Minnesota, Illinois and Pittsburgh among other schools.

How has Hank Brown played this year?

Hank Brown has played this season so Auburn fans are not heading into the game against New Mexico with no knowledge of what their starting QB can do.

He played in the Tigers game against Alabama A&M in Week 1. During the game, he went 3-of-5 for 96 yards and scored two touchdowns. He showed that against a weaker opposition, he can do well.

Luckily for him, New Mexico is a struggling side, who last year had one of the worst defenses in all of college football. This only improves the likelihood that Brown could put up some respectable numbers.

Why is Hank Brown the starting QB for Auburn?

Auburn decided to give Hank Brown the starting QB role for the game with New Mexico due to the poor performance of Payton Thorne in Week 2.

Thorne struggled and threw for 165 yards and four interceptions in their loss against the California Golden Bears.

The decision to bench Thorne and promote Brown was made by coach Freeze, who said this on Wednesday during the SEC teleconference:

“After watching the film, there is a very, very short leash on us playing as poorly as we did at that position. It’s not always the quarterback. One interception he gets hit with poor protection, the other deflected off the receiver’s hand, I know the quarterback always gets a ton of criticism and it’s not always exactly them, but there are plays that we had that he’s expected to make that we didn’t make in critical moments. (Payton) has to produce for sure."

"Hank has been playing well this week. We just had one practice, I’m curious to see how they perform with the reps that are given,” Freeze said.

Now Brown will have the opportunity to show to Auburn's fans and to coach Freeze that he is capable of playing at this level. If he plays well and leads the Tigers to victory over New Mexico, he could start games later in the season against some of college football's biggest programs.