The future waited about 700 miles away.

That future may not have known what was transpiring at Nissan Stadium on an overcast Saturday afternoon in Nashville, Tennessee. It may not have seen another point in why it may be so crucial. In the present, that future just was trying to get ready for another showcase game.

On a practice field at the ESPN Wide World of Sports near Orlando, Florida, were 5-star Auburn signees Cam Coleman and Perry Thompson. The two wide receivers were practicing for the Under Armour high school All-America game to be played this week.

On a football field at Nissan Stadium, a depleted and deficient group of Auburn pass catchers reminded the 700-mile-away future of why they picked Auburn in the first place. They are needed.

As the overcast turned to night and busses loaded with stunned and saddened Auburn players following a 31-13 Music City Bowl loss to Maryland, it would be hard for head coach Hugh Freeze not to turn his mind right toward 2024, right toward the future, right toward Coleman and Thompson and all that can’t arrive soon enough.

Right toward the gamble he’s now had to backtrack on.

Throughout the cold day, Freeze seemed to roam the sidelines with a look of helpless frustration. Long before Auburn sputtered out in its final game of the season to finish the year with a losing 6-7 record, Freeze had appeared to mentally turn the page toward the 2024 roster, essentially opening admitting his 2023 team — while inches away from multiple top-10 wins — wasn’t good enough.

He sat at a postgame interview table alongside tight end Rivaldo Fairweather. Fairweather had set an Auburn record on this day for receptions by a tight end in a single season. But the stunned, introspective look on his face wouldn’t show it. For what he’d done — catching five of seven tough, contested targets for 45 yards — wasn’t enough on its own.

After four wide receivers and one tight end from an already struggling group of pass catchers entered the transfer portal, Auburn found itself even thinner at its weakest position.

It meant for some old-school formations in the Auburn offense including Fairweather lined up as an outside receiver. Fellow tight ends Brandon Frazier and Micah Riley were used in multiple positions, too.

Yet when Auburn was forced to throw with a large deficit against Maryland, quarterback Payton Thorne hardly found a tight end, running back or wide receiver with any separation. A deep ball in the first half to wide receiver Camden Brown which was nearly intercepted because Brown essentially did not make a play on the ball was emblematic of the stagnant play of the wide receiver corps all season.

Thorne threw for 84 yards on 13 completions.

Freeze has been aware of the clear weakness in Auburn’s passing game which ranks among the 10 worst in the nation. He has not been shy to suggest Auburn’s solution for the position is not on this roster. So he pursued wide receivers with added emphasis at the high school level.

Auburn inked Coleman and Thompson as well as four-star receivers Malcolm Simmons and Bryce Cain during December’s early signing period. It added transfer wide receiver Robert Lewis from Georgia State and Cal quarterback-turned-wide receiver Sam Jackson V.

“The receiving corps coming in we were absolutely banking on them helping us and making us better and more diverse so we can do more things, but also we have to play around every position, and I didn’t think we protected well in the first half, didn’t think we ran the ball well in the first half, either, so it’s all of it,” Freeze said Saturday.

Yet it leaves Freeze with a question he’ll have to hope he’s right about: is that alone going to be enough to fix a flawed offense?

Freeze has already laid out his hand with statements between Auburn’s Iron Bowl and Music City Bowl losses. His logic centers on that if he can surround Thorne with enough high-end receiving talent — similar to what he had on a 2021 Michigan State team that won the Peach Bowl — then Thorne can be a successful quarterback.

So knowing the receivers he was about to add in Auburn’s 2024 signing class, Freeze gave Thorne his vote of confidence as the quarterback for next year as the team opened bowl practices.

“If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but that’s my belief,” Freeze said.

Yet two weeks later, that message has quickly changed.

“I’m constantly evaluating players, staff, everything, and if we see that my evaluation has been wrong, then we have to change gears and reevaluate to make us better, then that’s the steps we should make,” Freeze said after the Music City Bowl loss.

It’s a poignant statement and change of heart from Freeze. It strikes as a realization that the issues his offense faces going into next season won’t be solved alone by wide receivers that, on paper, are more talented than what Auburn currently has.

After the Music City Bowl, Freeze said that his top quarterback position is “wide open” going into next season.

While Thorne hardly received any help from his pass catchers, he did not help himself either. His lone interception was a poor read where he entirely failed to see Maryland defensive back Glen Miller. Miller picked off the pass and returned it for a touchdown. Thorne threw a second interception, but it was called back because of a penalty.

It wasn’t the first time a significant mistake on a read from Thorne led to a costly interception.

It wasn’t even the first time in Nashville this season that happened to Thorne. He had a very similar interception in Auburn’s win against Vanderbilt.

Adding four — and potentially five if Auburn can flip five-star Saraland wide receiver Ryan Williams from his Alabama commitment — elite high school talents doesn’t fix that problem.

“I believe that if we get the right pieces around (Thorne) and Holden and Hank, I think our quarterback room is going to be fine next year,” Freeze said at the beginning of bowl practices. “That is my belief. It’s what drives me to get the right pieces around them.”

Freeze has tied himself to this belief. For the style in which he’s trying to build Auburn, he has to be right.

But he also now seems to have stepped back to review his thoughts. Implicitly, it may be why he re-opened his quarterback competition. His gamble on a step forward from Thorne may not be simple.

Whether that means a change at quarterback or a change in his surrounding pieces — whether that be staff or players — Freeze now plans to evaluate.

He will evaluate the roles of Holden Geriner and Hank Brown behind Thorne. He will evaluate four-star quarterback signee Walker White. He will evaluate offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery. It’s unclear if that evaluation may stray further into the transfer portal.

On paper, the pieces around the quarterback — when that future makes its way to Auburn to join an already loaded running back room and the most prolific receiving tight end in Auburn’s history — are going to be better in 2024.

Will that mean anything if the man throwing the ball isn’t getting the job done?

Before the Music City Bowl, Freeze thought he had his answer at quarterback. Instead, his gamble has a new layer.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]