It’s been a few days since the beatdown in Fayetteville, so Coach Freeze sat in front of the media to give his thoughts on that win as well as looking ahead to New Mexico State.
Opening Statement…
There were a lot of good things from Saturday that we’re happy with. Obviously, there’s always something to improve, but to go on the road and win in dominating fashion, I think the most glaring thing that we were most pleased with is I thought that we dominated the trenches on both sides, offensive line and defensive line. Usually that’s a good sign in a game. I loved the energy that our kids and staff brought and the way they jumped out. I thought we played fast and started fast, and that was good to see. It’s good to be bowl eligible, for sure. We’re excited about representing Auburn, wherever that is, but we have more work to do.
That starts this week with our return to Jordan-Hare and playing what I think is one of the better Group of Five teams. They’ve gotten better and better and better as the year has progressed. I know Jerry Kill really well. He is one heck of a ball coach, and he’ll have his guys ready. They’ve continued to improve as the year has gone on, and they’re a very talented team and play extremely hard. So, we’re going to need Jordan-Hare to be at its best, and we need to keep the momentum going. We’ll be faced with some of the normal challenges of wanting to rest on last week, and all those things that come as temptations, and we’ll have to fight against that. So the leadership with the team, I’m going to ask them to help me with that.
On receiver play and improvement…
Yeah, I think (Ja’Varrius Johnson) has constantly improved ever since he came back from injury. He’s somebody that we have to figure into the passing game, for sure. He and Jay (Fair). I’ve said it since I got here that I thought those were two of the more talented guys that we’ve had. We’ve improved some other places, but we still have a ways to go. We still are inconsistent in that realm some, but we definitely have improved, and (Ja’Varrius) is certainly a part of that.
On going on the road and dominating…
Yeah, that doesn’t happen that much in this conference. Honestly, I don’t remember one in this conference. We had a few at Liberty, and maybe one at Arkansas State, but I don’t remember going on the road in this conference and it going quite like it did for us Saturday. It’s the first time that Auburn’s held an SEC opponent to 15 or fewer points in three straight games since 2016, most rushing yards by an SEC team in a league game this season, so you look at those two deals. If you’re rushing the ball in league play for 354 (yards) or whatever we did Saturday, and then our defense is holding them to 15 or fewer points, we have a good chance to win, but to answer your question, I don’t remember one quite like that.
On feeling momentum around the program…
Yeah. You can’t help but to when you win some games and you’re getting quality recruits. That’s cause to say you have momentum, but you have the job and the chores to continue that because if we stub our toes this week it’s easy to say that the momentum would be shifted the other way and that everyone’s who’s praising right now wouldn’t be praising you.
Momentum is an everyday thing. I firmly believe in life you are either winning or learning, and I think that’s a choice. You can also choose losing, but one thing, for sure, you better get to choosing or life has a way of choosing for you. That’s my message to our team this week. When we are on a four-game losing streak, you’re obviously not winning so that should be the learning time, but I don’t like to wallow in that very long. I wanted to get out and luckily our kids did, too, but the only way you truly ever lose is when you choose that because every experience that we have you can choose to learn from and make yourself better. That’s what I hope we’ll do this week is learn. Why did we play well? Why are we getting better? We better not forget those things. There’s still some learning to do.
On seeing improvement in the offense…
It’s really good to see our kids play with confidence. I don’t think that you can be very good at anything unless you have some confidence with what you’re doing. They seem to be a confident group right now that is excited about another opportunity. I don’t mean for this to sound any way, but we could have put up a lot of numbers (at Arkansas). They were good, but we really started milking the clock about halfway through the third quarter and did not throw it. I really wish that I could have gotten Holden (Geriner) some throws in there, but you want to handle things the right way when you do get those opportunities because I’ve been on the other side of that, too. I do think our kids are starting to believe in something and believe we can score some points. They are playing with some confidence.
On New Mexico State QB Diego Pavia…
He’s a very talented quarterback. Extremely, extremely tough, and mobile. He’s handful, for sure. They are using him in a lot of ways with a lot of motions, shifts and formations. They have a really good plan, and he can make a lot of things happen with his feet.
On the overall health of the team…
I think we’re okay. I mean anytime you play a game there’s some things that pop up, but nothing has ruled anybody out at this point, so I feel pretty fortunate.
On Payton Thorne’s next-play mentality…
Quarterbacks, they better have that, and he does have it and he’s able to handle me. He let’s me rant a little bit and without it destroying him. I have to be careful with that with some probably, but he, all the good ones I’ve had, I’ve told them ‘This is what’s going to happen.’ He’s mature enough to handle it and we can move on. It’s obviously glaring when he’s made a mistake at quarterback. I think one of the reasons that he handles the few mistakes he’s made is that he knows better. I guess that’s why it upsets me sometimes, but man he is a no-excuse guy and ‘I’ll play the next play guy’, and it shows.
On this time last year managing a potential coaching change…
It’s extremely, extremely difficult to manage. I can’t explain how hard it is. The Liberty people were so incredible to me. I think we did good things for Liberty, also. We beat a bunch of Power Fives and were in the top 25 a couple of times. We won three bowl games and went to four. I didn’t get to coach the last one. You realize that you might be getting this opportunity, but the truth is you don’t know what’s going to happen with the job searches. I’ve been around long enough to know you really don’t know. You don’t know what to tell the people that are so good to you. The good thing is I had a great relationship with the AD there, and I was very transparent with him along the journey. It’s very difficult because you realize you might be getting another opportunity at a place like Auburn based on how those young men, staff and everyone else has performed.
You realize there’s going to be a lot of hurt involved, and those last few days you don’t know what to say. You don’t know if you are Auburn’s choice. I truthfully was not out their hunting a job. I was very content and very happy at Liberty. You’re trying everything in the world to manage it the right way, but what is the right way? I was thinking about that this morning. You hurt for all these families that are going to be displaced. We all sign-up for it, so we get it. I also started to think about all the names that started floating around. The challenge that it is because I just experienced it here recently. I don’t know what the right thing is to do because you’re trying to protect your relationship with those young men and the school that has been so good to you, while you can’t help but want to listen to an opportunity like at Auburn and the SEC. There’s not many of those jobs. It’s just extremely difficult to manage. That last 24 hours was rough.
On Rivaldo Fairweather and the tight ends…
He’s important to us. I love our tight end room. I’ve said that. I think Tyler Fromm can do a lot of those things, also. It was good to see all of them get some touches the other day. We stayed in 12 personal a big part of that game, and that allows us to line up Rivaldo a lot of different places so it might be more difficult for their match up on him. It’s something that’s important to us, getting him moved around.
On maintaining momentum without looking too far ahead…
It’s going to test our maturity. We’re going to talk about it today in our team meeting. That’ll be my message, and we won’t talk about the other team you mentioned. We’re going to talk about the team we have right in front of us that could sting us, and I have experienced that before. We need to continue getting better. We have a lot of things we could improve on. That will be the challenge and the message is ‘How will we choose to handle this week?’. That starts with today and then Tuesday. There’s a reason we’ve had some success. There’s a lot of factors that go into having success, but one of them is how they’ve approached work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so we better not change that.
On getting D.J. James and Nehemiah Pritchett back…
D.J. (James) has improved, improved and improved, and Nehemiah has played two really solid games. Kayin Lee and Tyler Scott came in, two freshmen, and played solid also, but those two seniors, they have that experience, and not just experience but having experience and talent. I’ve seen them mature and handle more of the leadership role, and they are more accountable to the little things. That’s rewarding to see.
On the confidence of the defense…
Marcus Harris is the most vocal leader, and Keionte Scott. Those two guys are the most vocal leaders, but the others are playing with a great amount of confidence. I think you’re just now seeing with Jalen McLeod what we saw at the beginning of fall camp. Truthfully, it’s taken him this long to get over that high ankle sprain. The last few weeks, you watch practice and you see he is getting close to 100 percent now. Congratulations to him.
I think he is going to be named SEC Defensive Player of the Week, and Keionte Scott is the Special Teams Player of the Week. Congratulations to both of those (guys). I think Marcus and Keionte are the most vocal leaders. It takes them all. (Zion) Puckett is an incredible leader. He doesn’t talk as much as they do, but he’s all about the right things, doing the right things and practicing the right way. So is Elijah (McAllister). He’s a vocal leader. Just continuing to see them improve over there, for sure, and leadership is part of it.
On the improvement on perimeter blocking…
We still have a way to go. There are some yards left out there because of that, but we have improved it. Other than the Vandy game. The Vandy game was not good for perimeter blocking for us. The others we have done a decent job, and (Arkansas) was probably our best down the field, people being aggressive and finishing and playing without the ball. I thought that was our best to date, but we still have to work on it.
Transcript via Auburn Athletics.
