Hugh Freeze earned his first SEC win as Auburn’s coach with a 27-13 victory vs. Mississippi State in large part because of the play of quarterback Payton Thorne.

Freeze had been utilizing Thorne and Robby Ashford in tandem prior to last weekend. However, Freeze gave Thorne the nod for the entire game and he rewarded his coach.

Thorne went 20-for-26 for 230 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions during the victory which snapped an 0-4 skid against SEC opponents this season.

In a recent press conference, Freeze pointed out the positive improvements made by Thorne.

“He was really confident in the plan. It showed. He probably left 2 throws out there that he should’ve thrown in my opinion. He’ll agree when he sees the film. He had 2 other RPOs that probably should’ve been thrown. I thought he left the pocket a little early a couple times but he did good things with it. He took care of the ball,” Freeze said. “But outside of those 4 plays, it was hard to argue that he didn’t play really, really, really solid…Our kids responded to that around him well.”

Auburn will aim to build some momentum when they travel to take on host Vanderbilt on Saturday. Vanderbilt has yet to win an SEC game this season but the all-time series is tied 21-21-1 between the programs.

Auburn at Vanderbilt will get underway at 4 p.m. EST (SEC Network).