Hank Brown had several things in his favor heading into his first collegiate start on Saturday against New Mexico. The quarterback had the home crowd behind him and was going up against one of the worst pass defenses in FBS. He also had the privilege of being the most popular person on campus: the backup quarterback taking over for a struggling starter.
Jeremiah Cobb gave him one more favor on Auburn's first possession with a 66-yard kickoff return to set up Brown and the Tigers' offense on the Lobos' 32-yard line. Nine plays later, Brown found Camden Brown for a 10-yard touchdown.
That was part of a first quarter in which he looked poised and calm in the pocket, completing 7-of-9 passes for 107 and that scoring strike to Brown.
Brown's second quarter wasn't as pretty. With pouring rain coming down on Pat Dye Field, the Nashville native couldn't get a good grip on the ball, completing just one of six passes for eight yards.
Despite the struggles, Freeze wasn't worried about where Brown's confident stood at halftime.
"No," the coach said. "I could tell what was going on and he had very little grip."
Brown came out hot in the third quarter, completing all six pass attempts for 60 yards, two of which went for touchdowns. Rolling to his right, the redshirt freshman found Micah Riley in the corner of the end zone to make it 24-13. On the next drive, he wisely checked down and found an open Jarquez Hunter, who did the rest on the 14-yard touchdown catch.
After the Lobos cut the lead to 31-19, Brown hit Rivaldo Fairweather, who beat defenders and raced in for a 26-yard score. It was Brown's fourth touchdown pass of the game, matching what Payton Thorne did in the blowout win against Alabama A&M in the season opener.
Overall, he finished 17-of-25 for 235 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. This all came a day after Brown learned he would be the starting quarterback for Saturday's game and possibly the future. Hugh Freeze had a massive decision to make after Thorne's performance in the 21-14 loss to Cal last week. The Auburn head coach stuck with Thorne after an up-and-down 2023 season, not grabbing a quarterback from the transfer portal when there were some good ones out there. Freeze had said that Thorne was Auburn's guy for 2024.
That changed sometime during this past week, and it was Brown, not Thorne, introduced as the starter on the jumbotron before the game and taking the first snaps.
For now, Brown is 1-0 as a starter after Auburn pulled away from the Lobos in a 45-19 win. He was good enough to do the job against New Mexico.
Brown passed his first test. The tests are going to get more difficult in the coming weeks.
