Coach Freeze sat down with the media today to talk about Cal and the upcoming game with New Mexico. He said a lot. Like, a lot, a lot.
Opening remarks…
“Like we said Saturday evening, really disappointed in not finding a way to win a game, which was a winnable game. I knew all week, and tried to tell everyone around here, I thought Cal was really experienced, veteran football team, and so give them credit for that. They played at a high, high level, particularly controlling the ball in the first half. I thought their quarterback played extremely well. Defensively, those eight returning starters, I don’t remember a single tackle they missed, and I thought they played at a high level. So congratulations to their coaching staff and their kids. They really played at a high level.
Having said that, we’re very disappointed in the way we played, and something we have got to get fixed. And it starts with us as coaches, it starts with me. I thought defensively we played well enough to win the game, even though in the first half, we gave up too many third downs. But some of those, they really made some good plays, but we controlled the line of scrimmage defensively. I believe they had two-point-something yards per rush, and that’s with two explosive runs there at the end. So I thought that was really good. We limited their explosive plays, affected the quarterback, he took some hits. We didn’t come up with any turnovers. When you’re struggling like that and you have a chance to make one, we’ve got to make those.
We had a chance to make a couple and we just didn’t. I thought we fixed issues. DJ (Durkin) and his staff, I thought they fixed the issues as the game went on, and that was really good to see, and hopefully we can build upon that for sure. But I thought they got better as the game went on and gave our football team a chance to win the game. Special teams, effort was really good. Thought we were really physical, and we had no penalties. Punt team was really, really solid, so I thought our special teams played really, really solid.
“Offensively, it was an awful performance. And we’ve got to find some consistency there. And that’s our job this week, to find that as we get ready to play New Mexico, who went toe to toe with (Arizona), who I think … is ranked 20th in the country right now. They went toe to toe with them and do some really, really good things, both offensively and defensively. So it will be a good test our character as adversity always reveals what that is, and we’ll get to see that as we continue to try to build this program.”
On how he thinks his team will react to the adversity of Saturday’s loss…
“I wish like heck we had morning practices so I would have already seen all of them. I got to see a few of them yesterday. I won’t see the whole team for another couple of hours here this afternoon. But I expect us to respond like you should. The leadership of the team has to demand that. I did talk to the Culture Council, and all of them are saying all the right things, but you have to carry that over into your prep. Football season’s a long season. There were many, many good teams that struggled Saturday, and some got beat like we did. One game cannot define a season. And I know that’s the outside world, the noise that comes with today’s times, I know that your players hear all of that. It’s a real battle you have to face.
We’ll see today in my teaching session and the time we spend together, but I depend upon my assistant coaches and our staff to be consistent in our approach and our enthusiasm, and our approach to building this program the right way through high school recruiting. Our young kids, I don’t worry about them at all. They have a passion that’s really fun to watch and coach. And so we’ve just got to make sure the older guys that have been through all of this, that have heard the talk of these are the goals every year. The goal ought to be 1-0 this week, period. And nothing else. So that message will come across clear to our kids, and hopefully they’ll respond the right way.”
On the potential of making a change at quarterback…
“First of all, we aren’t talented enough yet to play bad and win. I know everybody doesn’t want to hear that, but the way we’re choosing to build this is to try to develop young men. Obviously if you follow recruiting, we’re starting to get our roster to be better. But we can’t play poorly and win, particularly with five turnovers. Other good teams can’t either, obviously, as you see across the nation. We’re not there yet, but we’re going to get there, and I said it’s going to take some patience, but not that anyone should be satisfied with Saturday’s performance. But we will get there to where we could possibly play poorly and still win. But we’re not there yet.
It’s really hard to not play a young man, whether it’s Payton (Thorne) or whoever else it is, it’s really hard to not play a young man who consistently is the best performer in practice, over and over and over again. His execution of the offense, it’s been pretty clear to all of us throughout camp and throughout the practice weeks, his performance and his understanding of what we want to do has been better than the others. If you do that, you kind of send a message that practice really doesn’t matter. Having said that, you have to carry that over into the games. You have to. I did witness him play really, really good football in some big games last year. We’ve also witnessed the opposite of that in some games.
Quarterbacks and coaches, we take a lot of the criticism when things don’t go well. Some of it’s deserved. Some, when you watch the film, it’s not exactly what people would say happened. His four interceptions, one, he took a hit right at the throw, he’s got a guy running wide open. And let me say this, about the calls from the staff, from (Derrick) Nix and Kent (Austin) and the other people who made calls. There were some really good calls made in that game. We had people running wide open, and Payton missed three of those that I think changed the game in the first half. But one of the picks, he gets hit, you can’t control that. Another one was a total miscommunication there at the end. One went off a receiver’s hand. It could have been a lower throw, probably could have been caught, too. That’s three of them. One was a very, very poor decision, should have never gone there.
You look at all of that, he’s the highest performer in practice and preparation, which obviously has led to us giving him the starting nod. But there’s got to be carryover into the game. I think it was John Wooden who spoke directly about this, honoring the practice. But sometimes adjustments have to be made, and I promise you we’re prepared – if that continues, we have to go another direction.”
On the status of Izavion Miller and Cam Coleman for Saturday…
“Both will be questionable for sure. I think Cam probably has a better shot of playing than Too Tall (Miller). Too Tall tried to come back in. That’s one of the hits that Payton took right when he was throwing, he just couldn’t move. He’s got a hip issue and we’ve had MRIs on both of them, it’s nothing that’s season ending, thank God, but will probably be difficult for Too Tall to play, and I’m not sure on Cam. Just depends on how quickly he gets some range of motion in that shoulder.”
On the performance of the wide receivers…
“Yeah, they elevated themselves to those positions, but when you get as few possessions as we had, that’s not really the ideal plan. I think we have others in Perry (Thompson), Malcolm (Simmons), Sam (Jackson V) and Caleb (Burton III) that also can perform at a high level and it just that we never got any kind of rhythm to where you got a good rotation going with those guys. And so that is not the way we like to play a game where just those three (KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Robert Lewis, Cam Coleman) got the majority of the snaps. But it just was way too many three-and-outs, one-and-outs. Nobody was ever tired, because we just didn’t have enough offensive snaps.”
On potentially running the ball more in last week’s game…
“We were effective in running (the ball). I think we averaged seven yards per rush. The whole third quarter we started every possession inside the two. We were able, both times, to effectively run the ball out of there and then go to our base offense, and both times we turned it over and had wide open guys on both throws. Should we have just kept handing it off and they’re giving you these throws? I don’t think you can live like that, particularly in the games we have coming up. You have to be balanced and take what they give you, but we have to execute those gimme throws, those gimme plays when we do that. One was a protection (issue) where he got hit and one was the tipped pass off a wide-open slant route that was probably going to be an explosive play if we convert it.
Yeah, we were effectively running it to get it out of there and then turning it over and then getting it back. First possession of the fourth quarter, I believe, we fumbled it and we finally had field possession then. Five turnovers, it spells disaster for sure. I thought we were pretty balanced and thought we knocked them off the ball some to have an effective run game.”
On the plan at tackle if Izavion Miller is unavailable…
“We’re probably going to have to (move Dillon Wade) this week. Go with (Bradyn Joiner) and Tate (Johnson) at guard and probably move one of these, I’m not sure, Tyler (Johnson) or Percy (Lewis), one would have to go to right (tackle). Most likely we’ll have to move Dillon Wade to tackle this week. I’m not sure which one yet. We’re going to talk through that in a minute.
I thought Percy played his best game, and that was good to see. Tyler looked a little like a freshman at some points. We’ll need all three of them. Chances are we’ll move one to right (tackle), one to left (tackle) and the other guy is going to have to be the swing guy. (Ronan) Chambers played OK at times. In the run game he played fine. Pass game he struggled a little bit. Those will be the four guys, but yeah you’ll probably see us have to move D. Wade out some. Maybe not every snap, but I would like you’ll see him at tackle some this week.”
On where he thought the team would be farther along…
“Us not executing the offense from the quarterback position, truthfully. We have a reel of about 15 plays that were just things we have to get right and are typically done right in practice. Our coaching staff feels like maybe we attempted to carry too much because of all of the different looks that (Cal) gives you, which they do and they did a good job with that, instead of us just saying, ‘Man, this is who we are and let’s do what we know we can do with a clear mind, clear head.’
I assure you the package will not be big moving forward this week so we can get an accurate picture of ‘Is this going to be a reoccurring theme where we have to make decisions?’ We probably carried a bit too much, but we just missed some very simple, simple things that would’ve kept us ahead of the chains and not in those third-and-longs, which we just can’t live in.”
On potentially giving Hank Brown more first-team reps in practice this week…
“Meeting with both of them individually after we get out of here and going through that cut-up reel and them seeing how all of that goes, and we will go from there. Hank (Brown) will definitely get his share of reps this week. I expect them both to go about it the right way and go out and have a great week in practice. But again, I say now it’s at a point where it can’t just be the execution in practice that matters. We are going to have to have that carry over into the game, which I have seen evidence of, but you also have times where you scratch your head and say what are we doing?”
On Keionte Scott and his role with the secondary…
“A lot of pressure on that secondary right now. We are really thin. Keionte is still struggling with that hamstring; we just need to get him healthy. We need him desperately. He only played in dire situations in the second half and we really need him to play the majority of the snaps, so hopefully we can get him healthy.”
On whether something could change between now and Saturday with quarterbacks…
“That’s a hard one. I think you all know me. I’m not going to tell you all something that’s not true, so could it, yes. Do I think I want to see how the week goes before I really decide that, yes. I want to see how it goes and see how everybody responds to what is on the tape. We talked about it all the time, the integrity of your life and tape is not always fun. I’ve experienced that and everybody has experienced that. And we have to experience that in the public eye and you have to own what that is. And you have to make the necessary changes.
Sometimes there are consequences that come with it and we certainly experienced those Saturday. If not handled right, there are more consequences that come with it and they have heard me say it a thousand times. I have had to live that and we will see how they handle what the film says.”
On how his team can win when they don’t play their best…
“Don’t turn it over five times, and I think we would have found a way to score enough points to win, even though we played bad. But not when you are having three-and-out, turnover, three-and-out, turnover, one play, turnover, one play, turnover. You’re just not going to get into any rhythm and are not going to be able to really know. It’s very hard for a play caller to even call a game like that. Because, heck, we didn’t even get to see how they are going to play this formation. It was one of those really poor games for us to play and we are not at a point to turn it over five times and beat anybody. But we are going to get there. But we are obviously adding talent and these young kids are playing hard and well. They want to be coached and we are going to add a great class to them in ’25. But until then, we have to expect our kids to get better each week. I didn’t think we did last week.”
On how the offense can change if offensive line play doesn’t improve…
“That is one thing Payton (Thorne) gives you. He is the best mobile guy that we have that can extend the play with pressure. That weighs on your mind also. But the key to that is I think we’ve done a good job pass protecting when it’s not third-and-10 or third-and-12. It was just way too many of those. We can’t be in those situations. There is probably a lot of lines that are going to struggle when they’re able to get their rabbit personnel on the defense and four pass rushers and can add a fifth one to it. And you know you have to run routes to a certain depth to get a first down. It’s very challenging. So I think the key to us to be a great pass protecting team is to stay out of those. We need to stay in those third-and-5.”
On the new North End Zone project at Jordan-Hare Stadium…
“It just speaks to the Auburn people. The support that we get here is what makes losses hurt so bad. Because you want to put a product out there that our people are proud of and excited about. That’s just another step in the direction of us building and making Jordan-Hare even more difficult place to play. There is so many people that I know are going to be involved in blessing us with that.
Obviously at the forefront of that is Reid and Robin Dove who we’ve honestly developed a deep relationship with. They are dear friends of Jill and mine. We don’t just consider them boosters or Auburn supporters. We truly are really good friends and enjoy being around both him and their whole family. Our families got to spend quite a bit of time with them. They’re just the most generous, loving people. We’re thankful for their leadership in this for sure.”
On balancing being patient with expecting growth in year two…
“I don’t know that I can expect everybody to be patient in this world today. I get that. I’ve said that’s what it’s going to take for us to build this the right way. In due time, we’ll have a roster that looks like the elite in this conference. We made strides in that. And because we’ve made strides, you expect the product to reveal that. When you don’t reveal that, it’s disappointing to everyone and it stinks. And it hurts. It’s just not a good feeling and you can’t wait to get that taste out of your mouth.
I can’t wait for Saturday to get here to give us another opportunity to see if we can put that behind us and improve and head into SEC play. It’s certainly not going to get any easier. Everyone is playing at a high level right now it looks like in this league. We’re going to have to do that to be able to compete so I think it takes patience to really build a program. Everywhere I’ve been I think it’s been that way. You also, at the same time, there is a reasonable expectation for us to improve because we did bring in some better players.”
On why the RPO hasn’t had more success…
“That’s a tough one. I look forward to meeting with (Payton Thorne) in just a few minutes and hear what he is saying because we really haven’t talked about all of them. I have all of them pulled up and we are going to go through them again and see if I haven’t done a good enough job, or if Kent (Austin) and I, Jesse (Stone), and (Derrick) Nix have done a good enough job to call things he is comfortable with and how he sees that play being developed. I know his IQ is high enough to understand everything, and I am really anxious to go through those things and see what he says.”
On defensive success against the run…
“I thought consistently we did really good against the rush thus far. We crushed the pocket pretty good Saturday, too. Their guy stood in there and made some throws and took some hits. I think we pretty much stopped the run in the second half with a light box, truthfully, which is encouraging to see. I don’t know if we can do that every game against the competition we face, but they were able to do that Saturday. We rotated a lot of kids in there and a lot of players, and as I mentioned before, there is definitely a positive coming out of last Saturday the way they adjusted and played in the second half. I think 14 of the points came off turnovers. They really gave us every chance in the world to win that game.”
On the inability to carry the success of the opening drive to the rest of the game…
“Well, we didn’t have enough possessions in that first half to do it. We had another explosive play that we didn’t get protected. I wish you could see the film and just see how open they are. Those are the ones that we have to convert on and get protected. So it was a mixture, and I guess we just had three possessions in the first half other than the two minute drill. And that’s an uncomfortable feeling to have for sure. They just controlled the whole clock. The second half was the opposite honestly, and we probably won the time of possession in the second half because of the way our defense played. We just couldn’t ever get any consistency because of the turnovers or sacks.”
On the success Malik Blocton has had through two collegiate games…
“Like I said earlier, it’s a lot of fun coaching them. Keldric Faulk, I think, had a great game also. He’s one of the best leaders in young men that we have on our team. And Malik is kind of following him, which I like, and he’s just always excited to practice and always excited to be coached. He’s just young, and it’s refreshing. As are all those young receivers too, all these young kids – Amaris Williams too, (Jamonta) Waller. We have some really good young players, and I didn’t know he’d be this far along, but it’s really pleasant to see.”
Transcript via Auburn Athletics.
