As Auburn’s beat reporters, Ainslie Lee and Matt Cohen have asked lots of questions throughout fall camp.

And while most of our preseason questions have been answered, there are still plenty of answer-less questions that remain as first-year head coach Hugh Freeze and the Tigers approach their Week 1 matchup against the UMass Minutemen.

Here are 10 questions — five from each writer — that we’ll be looking for the answers to as Auburn’s season unfolds.

Ainslie: Can Payton Thorne and the Auburn offense strike up the band in 2023?

Five years ago, Bill Connelly, who is now with ESPN, did a case study looking at the five most influential factors in a college football game.

At the top of the Connelly’s list was explosiveness. Connelly calculated a team’s explosiveness by averaging the team’s points per play. And a team who won the explosiveness battle against its opponent won the game 86% of the time.

Anyone who watched the Tigers last fall knows they lacked in explosiveness. Heck, Auburn’s biggest play of the season came on a 62-yard screen play. And that 62-yard play was the shortest of the Tigers’ longest play of the year since the 2012 season.

Sophomore receiver Jay Fair, who had an impressive fall camp, said first-year head coach Hugh Freeze and first-year offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery are placing an emphasis on big plays.

“My reaction from hearing big plays? My eyes kind of lit up… the receiver’s dream,” Fair said. “But once you start to see it happen in that practice, it’s kind of a routine thing now, so we’re expecting that a lot this season.”

Ainslie: How much will we really see of Robby Ashford?

After a lengthy quarterback competition throughout fall camp, Freeze and the Tigers finally named junior Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne their starting quarterback. on Aug. 17.

Thorne beat out redshirt freshman Holden Geriner and incumbent starter Robby Ashford for the job. And ever since, Freeze has assured that Ashford boasts too much athleticism to keep off the field in 2023.

Last fall, Ashford tallied 710 yards and seven touchdowns with his legs, while passing for more than 1,600 yards and another seven touchdowns.

“I want to say this about Robby: He will always have a package,” Freeze said.

“Robby is not just a runner — he’s a dynamic runner, but he can throw. Certain things, he throws better. Hopefully, his consistency in that will continue to improve to where if we, whatever package he is in, they have to respect the pass off of it as well.”

It’s clear Freeze intends on using Ashford this fall. But just how much will be an interesting story to follow this season.

And, just to play devil’s advocate, let’s remember Ashford took over Auburn’s starting job by Week 4 last year.

Ainslie: Who will be the Tigers’ leading skill player?

Auburn’s offense will have a new look to it this fall with Freeze and Montgomery at the helm of the offense. The track records of both Freeze and Montgomery vary, pointing to this: The Tigers are going to play to their offensive strengths this fall.

Auburn’s rushing attack will likely be the Tigers’ bread and butter, but it’ll likely be a “by committee” approach, meaning an individual ball carrier probably won’t be the heads and shoulder leader in the backfield.

That paves the way for Auburn’s leading skill player to come from the receiving corps, which is just as deep.

Jackson State transfer Shane Hooks has turned heads a lot heading into the season with hands that are big and consistent. Hooks might highlight Auburn’s receivers, but slot guys Ja’Varrius Johnson and Jay Fair are two others to keep an eye on.

Ainslie: Will DE Keldric Faulk live up to the hype?

One’s gotta wonder if true freshman defensive end Keldric Faulk is feeling the pressure yet.

Faulk enters his first season on The Plains as the crown jewel of Auburn’s 2023 recruiting class after being a 4-star prospect who picked Auburn after flipping from Florida State.

Having been an early enrollee, Faulk has been on campus since January, meaning he had the opportunity to go through spring and fall camp — a luxury that can’t be understated for freshmen like Faulk, who is likely to see a lot of the field this fall.

When Faulk first arrived to Auburn, he was spending time with the Jack linebackers. But midway through fall camp, he transitioned over to defensive end, much to the delight of defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett.

Faulk, who was named to On3′s preseason true freshman All-American team, will share defensive end duties with Maryland transfer Mosiah Nasili-Kite. And it’ll be really fun to see how well Faulk performs on Saturdays — especially in a conference like the SEC.

If Faulk can live up to the hype as a freshman, you can book it that Faulk will be a household name at Auburn in the seasons to come.

Ainslie: What will be the tight ends’ role in Auburn’s offense?

To keep it short and sweet, Florida International transfer tight end Rivaldo Fairweather is entirely too talented to be misused or underutilized.

Fortunately for Auburn, Freeze is aware of that and that’s why he and the Tigers prioritized Fairweather once the transfer portal opened up.

In recent years, however, Auburn hasn’t utilized its tight ends much in the pass game — especially in the red zone. In 2022, John Samuel Schenker was the Tigers’ leading receiving tight end with 20 catches, just over 200 yards and just one touchdown. Tyler Fromm, who returns to Auburn this season, was next with just three receptions for 51 yards.

When you look at Georgia, TCU, Ohio State and Michigan — the four playoff teams from last fall — their tight ends averaged more than 39 catches, over 500 yards and just under five touchdowns last season.

And with the addition of Fairweather, it might be time Auburn looks to utilize its tight ends in a similar fashion.

Matt: What is Holden Geriner’s future at Auburn… or somewhere else?

On its first depth chart of the season, both Robby Ashford “OR” Holden Geriner were listed as the backup quarterback to Payton Thorne. Yet while the trio was at the center of the quarterback battle, only Thorne and Ashford seemed to have a clear route to playing time. Thorne is Auburn’s entrenched starter but Ashford’s athletics was going to make it hard to keep him off the field, according to Hugh Freeze.

And Ashford had his best days of practices after losing the starting job to Thorne. Though he does enter the first game with an oblique strain.

So where does that leave Geriner? He may be the most talented thrower of the group, and Freeze said as much. But that isn’t going to get him onto the field. Auburn isn’t going to use three quarterbacks. Barring injury, Geriner isn’t going to play much at all. But he can’t redshirt having already used that last year.

Is he willing to sit for a second year at Auburn, especially with a talented quarterback recruit in Walker White on his way and Thorne still eligible for the 2024 season? Will he want to pursue playing time elsewhere?

Matt: How long does Hugh Freeze’s honeymoon period last?

Optimism is high in Auburn. That’s not unfounded with a new coach, a new quarterback, a new scheme and new life breathed into this program.

This is the prototypical honeymoon period for a head coach where the sheer optimism will gloss over any flaw.

That doesn’t last forever.

There’s only one way to extend the wave of good feeling and that comes down to one word: winning.

The early part of Auburn schedule would seem favorable to that. Auburn will largely be expected to beat Cal in the second game, but a trip across the country to Berkeley is not easy on the body. Lose that game, and the optimism begins to fade.

Get through the non-conference unscathed and enter the gauntlet of SEC play. Can Auburn find a way to pull off an upset? Do the results generally stay chalk?

Play to chalk and Auburn is going to a bowl game this year for the first time in two seasons. That alone should be enough to keep long-term confidence with a strong recruiting class expected to come to campus next all.

Speaking of which…

Matt: How does Auburn maintain its recruiting momentum?

What a start for Hugh Freeze on the recruiting trail, right?

In Freeze’s first full recruiting cycle, Auburn has landed commitments from 5-star linebacker Demarcus Riddick and 5-star wide receiver Perry Thompson. Its 2024 class is ranked about the top 20 in the nation and in the top five based on the average rating of recruit.

The next challenge is to keep that going.

A lot of the recruiting momentum tends to play hand-in-hand with the honeymoon period for a head coach. Win, and the head coach can make good on promises, keep fans excited and keep jobs. Lose or fail to hit certain benchmarks, and a high school player may begin to question if that’s a program they want to invest their long-term future in.

A commitment does not equal a signing. Riddick and Thompson’s flips to Auburn signify that. Freeze said recruiting continues even after a player commits because he has to keep them committed.

So what, or maybe better yet who, is next?

Matt: Did the Tigers win the transfer portal lottery? What happens if not?

If you win this roulette wheel of the modern day we call the transfer portal, you truly can hit a proverbial jackpot. Look at TCU and its roster of transfers that made it all the way to the College Football Playoff national championship game last season.

Is a run to the Playoff in the cards for Auburn? Probably not.

Is this a significantly upgraded roster on paper because of the transfer portal? Yeah, I’d say so.

There are over forty (40!) new players on this roster compared to last season whether it be freshman or the transfer portal. That is a lot. A lot.

Half the battle here is fitting the puzzle pieces together. It’s a different world than recruiting out of high school because these transfers are all at different stages of their college career with different experiences and different personal goals. Can these new pieces form chemistry with players who were already at Auburn and stayed through a coaching change?

The offensive line could be a key place to watch with three transfers — Dillon Wade from Tulsa, Avery Jones from East Carolina and Gunner Britton from Western Kentucky — expected to start against UMass, and potentially a fourth if junior transfer Izavaion Miller cracks the starting lineup.

This new-look bunch will be the crucial point of an Auburn offense that needs an improved offense line.

Having a strong-looking transfer class is good to look at. How that works in a game that matters is the more important question.

Matt: Can Auburn truly, legitimately, seriously, actually stop the run?

This question came up quite a lot at Auburn’s media availability before playing UMass this Saturday.

Is Auburn’s expected strong running game a product of a deep running back room? Or a product of going up against a bad Auburn run defense in scrimmages and practice.

History would lend itself to the latter.

Auburn returns multiple starters from a defensive interior that was ranked 96th out of 131 FBS teams last season. Does returning starters mean improved play with experience and age?

Or does it mean much of the same?

Transfers like Justin Rogers, Lawrence Johnson, Mosiah Nasili-Kite, Elijah McAllister, Stephen Sings V, Jalen McLeod and freshman Keldric Faulk will provide some reinforcements and depth along the defense front which may ultimately help the overall play of the defensive front.

But does that mean Auburn can stop the run?

Stopping the run is essential to the foundation of Ron Roberts’ defensive scheme. Auburn has the talent and experience at secondary to be good against the pass, but that can’t then leave Auburn’s run defense out to dry as a product. It’s all about balance.