News Article: Hugh Freeze Play calling For 2025 Call Into Question

[BhamToTexas]

What happens on 4th???

With a strategy like this you will never face 4th down.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

If I were the OC I'd be upset that the HC doesn't have the confidence in me to call 3rd down. Auburn was ranked #61 in 3rd down conversions last season. That wasn't great but wasn't horrible either. Teams like South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida and even Georgia were worse in 2024 and had a better record than Auburn so 3rd down was not the reason they did poorly.

 

[CB4]

If I were the OC I'd be upset that the HC doesn't have the confidence in me to call 3rd down. Auburn was ranked #61 in 3rd down conversions last season. That wasn't great but wasn't horrible either. Teams like South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida and even Georgia were worse in 2024 and had a better record than Auburn so 3rd down was not the reason they did poorly.

Remember Freeze’s first year at the barn how many times in his post game presser he threw his OC Phillip Montgomery “under the bus”? Montgomery wasn’t an offensive genius by any stretch but several times Freeze mentioned “over ruling” Montgomery and taking over play calling, even at times making the comments along the line of “yeah this was the series that I called”.
I hope this turns into a complete clown show for Freeze.

 

[graydogg85]

I fully admit that I was thinking Auburn would be much improved this year, but I have to say that this completely changes my opinion.

I can't remember if it was under Shula or the early years of Saban, though I don't think it was, where we had the QB coach calling plays and not the OC? That seemed like a recipe for disaster, and this is 10 times worse.

You may be thinking of Saban’s first season in 2007 - Major Applewhite was the OC, and Joe Pendry was the OL coach. There were rumors that either (a) Pendry was calling plays, or (b) Applewhite was calling plays but we were using Pendry’s playbook. Not sure if either was true.

I do remember hearing from mods on this board that during Shula’s tenure, you would have Shula, Dave Rader (OC) and Sparky Woods (RBs) get into shouting matches on the headsets over which play to call and the QB would frequently have to check into an audible because we couldn’t get the play call to the field.

 

[Elefantman]

What happens on 4th???

Post a poll on Tidefans:

1) Go for it
2) Punt
3) Kick a field goal
4) Hand it to an opposing player and let him run it back of a TD

 

[gtgilbert]

How did everyone forget this guy was 19-21 in the SEC ON THE FIELD at Ole Miss despite all the cheating? He had a good bought and paid for team in 2015, but his 6-2 SEC record coincided LSU's late-season collapse (after losing to us, they cratered) and Auburn's team that needed overtime to beat Jax State.

Think about that: Matt Luke, who was considered a disaster, was 15-21 in conference, but Freeze was the next Bill Walsh.

Hugh managed to parlay two unlikely wins over Alabama - both in which they were incredibly lucky - into "we need him at Auburn, he knows how to beat Alabama."

In the future, Auburn needs to go get "the best coach we can get to come to Auburn" and NOT "this guy has beaten Alabama," which was the impetus to hire both Malzahn (2010 OC) and Freeze.

SHHHH!!!! Don't tell them that!!!!

 

[CrimsonTheory]

Let's be honest, Freeze has lived off two fluke wins against Bama. Both Liberty and Ole Miss got better after he left.

Freeze has been exposed as a mediocre HC. He is better suited at a North Texas level school.

 

[BamaNation]

It's time to admit Hugh Freeze experiment won't work at Auburn

Two years of bad losses and one bizarre offseason: the Hugh Freeze experiment is teetering at Auburn. This season could end in trainwreck.

www.usatoday.com

I am beginning to think the good reverend is planning to leave the plains.

I love orange and blue trainwrecks.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

So long as the barn stays focused on beating us and nothing else, this sort of thing will continue to happen.

As other posters have already said, the only thing in Freeze's resume that keeps him out of coaching High School ball is two wins over us. The first one in Oxford, we played like hot garbage. Ole Miss played better. While I still think we were the better team, Ole Miss was better that day. Hats off.

The second one was a massive fluke, with turnovers, abominable officiating and a miracle TD all going Ole Miss's way....and after all that we still had a chance at the end.

Now Freeze went out and poached a QB who was benched for lack of performance for half a season. BUT he has one positive line on his collegiate resume. You guessed it -- beating an Alabama team that played like hot garbage with six turnovers. If Arnold had led a victory over any other team in the country, he wouldn't have gotten a sniff from the barn.

Now that this wunderkind is on campus, and rather than instill confidence by testing him hard in practice, we're going to create confidence by telling a D (that, BTW, is only decent to begin with) to lay off the QB and let him think he's doing well. And we're going to put that in a national publication.

I'm reminded of the movie Paper Lion.

Oh my goodness. It doesn't get more barn than that.

 

[MikeInBama]

Surely this is a giant psyop and they're going to steamroll the SEC.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I think that's what they did. Seriously, WHY would any great coach even consider that cesspool program...?

I just find it difficult to believe that Gene Chizik was the best available head coach in 2008 when they.....whatever......Tuberville.

Look at who they interviewed and then who they chose:
Gary Patterson (TCU)
Brady Hoke
Todd Graham
Turner Gill
Derek Dooley (before he botched the job at Tennessee)
Houston Nutt
Gene Chizik

Other than Nutt (who was a top to bottom phony), Chizik was the worst candidate on that list. I know Patterson wasn't yet a big name compared with later - but geez! (And I understand they wanted to interview Muschamp back when he was the heir apparent to Mack Brown).

Keeping Tuberville would have been better than what they did.

But yes, they do react way too quickly to everything, almost that 13-year-old girl stereotypical reaction.

Remember that their AD said that Freeze was a "Perfect" fit for their program. So far that has proven true!

Well, he couldn't exactly go out and say, "We've hired a guy none of us like but who was the best of a bunch of bad choices!"

 

[selmaborntidefan]

So long as the barn stays focused on beating us and nothing else, this sort of thing will continue to happen.

As other posters have already said, the only thing in Freeze's resume that keeps him out of coaching High School ball is two wins over us. The first one in Oxford, we played like hot garbage. Ole Miss played better. While I still think we were the better team, Ole Miss was better that day. Hats off.

The second one was a massive fluke, with turnovers, abominable officiating and a miracle TD all going Ole Miss's way....and after all that we still had a chance at the end.

Now Freeze went out and poached a QB who was benched for lack of performance for half a season. BUT he has one positive line on his collegiate resume. You guessed it -- beating an Alabama team that played like hot garbage with six turnovers. If Arnold had led a victory over any other team in the country, he wouldn't have gotten a sniff from the barn.

The obsession with us is so hilarious.

I agree on all points. I never want it to sound like sour grapes. In retrospect, what should be taken about the 2015 team out of that Ole Miss game is that despite all the obstacles (many of them self-inflicted), we still had a chance to win the game at the end.

You know what nobody remembers about the 2015 Ole Miss game?
If you look at the stat sheet, we beat them incessantly in every phase of the game EXCEPT turnovers.

We had the ball for 35 minutes.
We had nearly twice as many first downs.
We had 70 more yards of total offense.
Take away that insanely lucky 66-yard TD, and we held Kelly to under 250 yards passing.
We even had half the number of penalties they had.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

Nix calling first down, Freeze calling second down, Kent Austin calling third...

I call dibs on fourth down; punt.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

Nix calling first down, Freeze calling second down, Kent Austin calling third...

I call dibs on fourth down; punt.

Punt? Coward. Go for it. Including on your own 1 yard line.

 

[cdub55]

By the way.....

2015 - college football adds an 8th on-the-field official in an effort to stop that slimy nonsense of running plays without guys being counted or subs entering the game.

Gus Malzahn who started 7-1 in the SEC, goes 28-22 in the SEC after the added official.
Hugh Freeze goes 8-8, admittedly with his best year in 2015, and gets canned.

Once they couldn't play their version of the Loyola Marymount On Grass offense, they were done.

I once met with Freeze between his Ole Miss stint and Liberty tenure. He is a very likeable guy and knows how to push the right buttons when interacting with people. One of the things we discussed was his philosophy on offense.

He did some unique things. One of them is he would have ten plays or so that correlated with each other. He had colors associated with those plays. His "Red" plays were all runs. His "Purple" plays were all passes. His "Black" plays were all RPO's. For instance, "Purple 1" was Power Right. "Red 1" was play action off of power right pass. "Black 1" was an RPO that included Power right and an RPO option. He did this so his players could remember the plays but move at an incredibly fast speed.

As most of you know, defenses have adjusted over the years and going as fast as humanly possible on offense isn't what it once was. Time will tell if Freeze can adjust...

 

[bamagradinATL]

You may be thinking of Saban’s first season in 2007 - Major Applewhite was the OC, and Joe Pendry was the OL coach. There were rumors that either (a) Pendry was calling plays, or (b) Applewhite was calling plays but we were using Pendry’s playbook. Not sure if either was true.

I do remember hearing from mods on this board that during Shula’s tenure, you would have Shula, Dave Rader (OC) and Sparky Woods (RBs) get into shouting matches on the headsets over which play to call and the QB would frequently have to check into an audible because we couldn’t get the play call to the field.

This reminded of the time we had Calloway (OC) and Stubbs (QB).

 

[crimsonaudio]

In the future, Auburn needs to go get "the best coach we can get to come to Auburn" and NOT "this guy has beaten Alabama," which was the impetus to hire both Malzahn (2010 OC) and Freeze.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

This reminded of the time we had Calloway (OC) and Stubbs (QB).

Dude! Post a trigger-warning or something before bringing that stuff up. I just had a panic attack and couldn't find a paper bag to breathe into.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Auburn have the distinction of being the only school in the NCAA to have both football AND basketball head coaches with a show/cause?

 

[CrimsonJazz]

Hugh Freeze addresses camp frustration with Jackson Arnold

Hugh Freeze explained to reporters the reason for a heated moment aimed toward Auburn QB Jackson Arnold in practice.

www.saturdaydownsouth.com

Hugh Freeze is hoping that Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold is the answer to Auburn‘s struggles at quarterback over the past few years.

If an exchange between Freeze and Arnold during practice on Thursday is anything to go by, though, it might be tough sledding on The Plains once more. A video that made its rounds on social media showed Freeze yelling at Arnold in frustration during a drill.

“God almighty, man…it ain’t that dang hard,” Freeze can be heard telling Arnold after slamming his visor to the ground.