Kirby Smart breaks down how to prepare for both Payton Thorne, Robby Ashford
The Georgia Bulldogs will be preparing to face two quarterbacks this weekend in their second conference game of the season, as they hit the road to face Auburn and new head coach Hugh Freeze.
Auburn’s offense is a heavy rushing attack, but features two quarterbacks that have differing skill sets, Payton Thorne and Robby Ashford. And ahead of the game, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart pulled back the curtain on his evaluation of Auburn’s offense and their two signal callers.
“They do a good job of using number one their backs run extremely hard, and extremely physical, and tough, and are hard to tackle,” Smart said. “Then you combine that with the quarterback run and it creates a lot of eye candy, a lot of misdirection. They do a really good job, Hugh always has done a good job of that.”
No team in the SEC has attempted more runs this season than the Auburn Tigers through four weeks with 166 rushing attempts to their name, averaging 197.8 yards on the ground per game. But when they do throw the ball, Thorne has been one doing so, as the Michigan State transfer has completed 65.3% of his passes this season for 561 yards, four touchdowns, and three interceptions.
“Well they’re both really good athletes, I don’t think people give Payton Thorne enough credit for his athleticism and quickness,” Smart said. “Now obviously, when you talk about Robby you’re talking about a different kind of athlete, this guy’s as fast as anybody we’ve ever played against with size and a strong arm.”
Ashford started nine games for Auburn last season, but this year is the team’s backup under Freeze who has been predominantly featuring the dual-threat quarterback in the red zone with his own run-heavy package.
Ashford has only thrown 17 pass attempts this season for the Tigers but has run the ball 23 times for 101 yards and four rushing scores. He’s mainly been operating in the red zone this season, and Smart was asked what advantages come with having an athletic quarterback like Ashford in those situations.
“Extended plays, it’s an extra element. In the red zone every defense has an extra hat because nobody has to back up and play deep anymore so it becomes really tough to get to get the ball in in the red area in our league, and Robby gives you that dimension,” Smart explained. “I mean he is elite at the plays they do with him down there, they’re really hard to defend because there’s so many options to it. They’ve got good runners, they got good people to block, and then you add him to it and the fact he can throw. It makes for a difficult situation down there, they do a good job with his package.”
It sounds like the Bulldogs defense will need to have all their bases covered this weekend, which they usually do as they’re currently holding opponents to 11.3 points per game this season.
Georgia and Auburn will square off in an SEC rivalry game this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET in a matchup airing on CBS.