Hugh Freeze confirms Austin Keys will miss time with thumb surgery

Auburn didn’t make it through its season opener against UMass completely injury free, as linebacker Austin Keys suffered an injury that will keep him out for a bit.

Coach Hugh Freeze explained what happened on Wednesday during an SEC teleconference call.

“He had a thumb injury in the UMass game that’s required surgery, so he’s going to be out a while,” Freeze said.

Keys is a transfer linebacker from Ole Miss. In his junior season at Auburn now, Keys has had a decent amount of SEC experience over the last three years.

While with the Rebels from 2020-22 Austin Keys logged 51 career tackles, 3.5 tackles for a loss, 2.0 sacks, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble.

Auburn using two quarterbacks effectively

One of the things that stood out most from Auburn’s season opener against UMass was Freeze’s use of the quarterbacks. Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne generally had command of the offense between the 20s, but Robby Ashford was the go-to threat in the deep red zone.

Freeze explained after the game that that was the gameplan going in.

“As soon as we got down there, we put him in,” Freeze said of Ashford. “So that’s on the call sheet, that’s the plan. I mean, it wasn’t something that I just said, ‘Hey, how about let’s try Robby here.’ It was planned. I think every game plan is different, I just think he’s super talented. And I think there’s a lot of things we can do with him.”

Ashford made the reps count, scoring three rushing touchdowns in one quarter against the Minutemen.

Thorne threw for 141 yards and a touchdown to do his part.

“And I know people are in this world and day in time, you know, you can’t play two quarterbacks and I don’t know maybe they’re right,” Freeze said. “But we’re 1-0 and if we go 2-0 doing it, we’ll keep doing it. But I just think we need them both. You see how talented he is down there. So sure, it’s always gonna be a possibility.”

Auburn returns to action this weekend with a long road trip out to California for a 10:30 p.m. ET game on ESPN this Saturday.