After three quarters, it felt pretty clear that starting quarterback Payton Thorne’s day was over.

Thorne threw for 286 yards and five touchdown and Auburn was comfortably leading Louisiana-Monroe 38-7. The only question was who would replace Thorne.

Hank Brown started twice for Auburn earlier in the season and has been considered the backup, but true freshman Walker White was the only one of Auburn’s four scholarship quarterbacks that hadn’t seen the field yet this season.

Hugh Freeze elected to go with White, giving him his first career college action in the fourth quarter of Auburn’s 48-14 win. Freeze said the decision was nothing against Brown, but a chance to see White in live action before the end of the season.

“I kind of know what we have with Hank and Holden [Geriner],” Freeze said. “I just wanted to kind of see how he reacted in real-game situations. Other than the turnover, I thought he was OK.”

White only threw five passes during his stint in the game but added 18 passing yards and 18 rushing yards. He got off to rough start, fumbling on his first drive, but became a threat in the run game as the quarter went on.

Despite some of the success he had, White walked away from the performance unsatisfied.

“It was a lot of fun,” White said. “I was just talking to Payton about this. We’re perfectionists. Most quarterbacks are. The first drive: fumbled. Actually, the first drive I overthrew a hitch, and I fumbled.

“And then another, that last drive where I underthrew Perry on that back-shoulder ball. Just little stuff like that eats away at the joy that I can experience out there.”

Fellow freshman Cam Coleman was happy to see White in the game and complimented his running ability after the game.

“That boy was not handing that off. That boy was running it,” Coleman said. “I’m proud of Walker, though. The amount of work we put in in the offseason — Y’all don’t know about that, but me and Walker put in a lot of work in the offseason and for him to go out there and get a little experience, it means a lot.”

While it may end up being White’s only game action of the season, he found value in the opportunity to play early in his career and it was a chance to Freeze to further evaluate the quarterback room going into the offseason.

“I know that’s just really important for me to get some live action reps if my career is going to be extensive,” White said. “Just continue to get more and more experienced and just continue to add tools to my belt.”

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m