2 weeks Ago By ADAM COLE [email protected]
The promise is there. That much is easy to see after Hank Brown’s debut as Auburn football’s starting quarterback — a 45-19 win over New Mexico. He completed 68% of his passes, averaged 9.
4 yards per pass attempt, and threw four touchdowns for just the second time for Auburn in the Hugh Freeze era. But Freeze’s Monday press conference highlighted that, while Brown had a successful debut, there’s still room for improvement. “He had three things that we need to get corrected, other than his clock awareness,” Freeze said.
“That's got to improve. He had two times where he got late in the clock. One was a delay, and he did not have to even get out of that play.
He was thinking a little too much.” So, Brown technically had four things from Auburn’s win that Freeze wanted to see improve. But the other three involved passing decisions, one of which the coach described as “poor” and the other two being more acceptable, throwing to open receivers when better options were available.
“Those were, really, the only three things,” Freeze said. “He got us into the right runs. One hundred percent of his checks were right.
His decision-making was good. His execution was good. We could have had a higher percentage of completions, I think.
We had a drop by Perry, and we had a couple of wet ball issues that hurt him some there at the end of the second quarter, when we had no timeouts and we weren't getting a dry ball in. “But I was pleased with his first performance, for sure. Next week will be a bigger test for him.
” It’ll be a staunch upgrade in terms of quality of opponent when Auburn welcomes Arkansas to the Plains to open Southeastern Conference play at 2:30 p.m. CDT Saturday.
The Razorbacks are in a similar situation to the Tigers, holding the same record but playing with much of the momentum for the season on the line. Still, while the Razorbacks have struggled at points, there’s much more to them than New Mexico. Arkansas’ scoring defense ranks No.
74 nationally, a whole 57 spots better than the Lobos, and its run defense is the seventh-best in the country, a far cry from New Mexico’s unit, which statistically ranks as the worst in the FBS. Perhaps the saving grace is that Arkansas’ pass defense is more comparable to New Mexico than any aspect of its defense. It ranks No.
86 in Division I, where New Mexico ranks No. 124. “I'm really looking forward to it,” Brown said.
“It’s definitely an uptick in competition. They're definitely going to be a better defense than what we faced last week. I'm excited for it.
They're a fundamentally sound defense. You kind of know what you're getting.” Another positive for Brown and Auburn’s passing offense is that, while Arkansas has been able to defend the run, it hasn’t directly translated to rushing the passer.
The Razorbacks have generated just 5.0 sacks and 15.0 tackles for loss in three games.
Their pass rush also grades out as the second-worst in the SEC, according to Pro Football Focus, though they’ve forced 45 pressures, which is tied for sixth-best in the league. While the results haven’t been phenomenal, it sounds like getting pressure on Brown will be a focus for the Razorbacks this weekend. "Anytime you get a new quarterback, you want him to not be pressured,” Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said this week.
“They did such a good job of protecting for him (Brown). He looked really comfortable running in the game, running the offense and was very, very accurate. If you didn’t know he was a redshirt freshman, you wouldn’t have known it watching the game.
He did a wonderful job. They did what he does well and they protected him.” Get local news delivered to your inbox! Auburn University Athletics Beat Writer {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
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