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We have to stop this madness, this reactionary dog pile because the mean man has suddenly hurt the feelings of innocent players getting paid to play football.
Players wanted this setup — pay for play, free player movement, the right to choose their playing destiny — and now they’ve got it.
And everything that goes with it.
Failed NIL deals, broken dreams, public criticism. It’s all out in the open, for all to see.
“We’ve got to find a guy,” Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said after the Tigers’ loss to Arkansas last weekend, “That won’t throw it to the other team.”
And here I am, a strong advocate for player rights, pay for play and defacto free agency in college football, wondering what in the world is wrong with that criticism of the Auburn quarterbacks?
You can’t demand to be treated like an adult, and expect to be coddled like a child.
You can’t expect to be paid top dollar and given a starting job, then get upset when a coach uses criticism to motivate you.
You can’t negotiate multimillion dollar NIL deals and be given free movement with the ability to wreck rosters, and be immune to criticism.
In this rapidly-changing, ever-ranging billion dollar business — the likes of which we’ve never seen before — coaches with multimillion dollar contracts are held accountable. Why wouldn’t players be, too?
If UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka has the business acumen and public relations sense to announce he’s sitting the remainder of the season because NIL promises weren’t kept — the ultimate leverage move while playing for an unbeaten team — these guys aren’t emotionally fragile. They can handle public criticism.
The idea that coaches can’t say the quiet part out loud in this player-friendly environment is utterly ridiculous.
Auburn quarterbacks Payton Thorne and Hank Brown are playing poorly. In fact, maybe the worst of any quarterback room in the Power Four conferences.
Auburn quarterbacks in wins vs. gimme putts Alabama A&M and New Mexico: 10 TD, 0 INT.
Auburn quarterbacks vs. losses to California and Arkansas: 3 TD, 8 INT.
Auburn is one of six teams in FBS averaging more than eight yards per play (8.03) — but is dead last in turnovers (14). Those two things don’t align, and more times than not lead to losses.
Galling, gutting losses.
Soul-sucking losses that lead an exasperated coach to stand at a podium, minutes after a home loss that shouldn’t have happened — rewinding in his mind, over and over, the missed throws and opportunities — and playing the only card remaining in the deck.
Criticism.
Fair, functional criticism that somehow landed worse than asking why Toomer’s Drugs doesn’t sell diet lemonade.
Heaven help us if the quarterback with an NIL deal — and beginning next season, earning part of the expected $20-23 million per team budget in direct pay for play — can’t hear constructive criticism.
The days of coaches couching mistakes with “we had a bust” or “we were out of position” or “we have to coach it better” are long gone. No matter what you call it — and the semantics sold by university presidents and conference commissioners that paying players doesn’t technically translate to a “job” is insulting — a player failed.
I know this is difficult to understand in the land of everyone gets a trophy, but failure leads to success. Some players actually thrive in adversity, using doubt and criticism to — this is going to shock you — get better.
So Freeze wasn’t as diplomatic as North Carolina coach Mack Brown in a similar situation, so what? Brown, one of the game’s greatest coaches and its best ambassador, walked to the podium after a brutal loss to James Madison and said blame him.
He recruited his roster, he developed the roster, he chose the players. If anyone is at fault, it’s him.
“I just hate losing so much,” Brown told me Sunday. “I want to throw up.”
So does Hugh Freeze.
He just said the quiet part out loud.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
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