A rain-soaked Hugh Freeze sat down with the media to discuss his Tigers’ 45-19 win over New Mexico.
Opening statement…
“We always celebrate wins. It’s good to see some joy in the locker room. As a coach, you have to look at everything in a critical view, but we should never forget to celebrate those. I’m happy for our kids, our staff and our fans, that they leave Jordan-Hare (Stadium) tonight with a win. But, there’s a lot to improve on for sure and we’ll have to get cleaned up. It feels better to leave here with a win all the time and we’ll take it.”
Jerrin Thompson, S
On his first career interception…
“A lot of guys were doing their jobs. I wouldn’t have done it without Eugene (Asante). He put pressure on the quarterback and made the guy throw up something and I just made a play with the ball.”
On locker room conversations at the half about how the defense was performing…
“We knew that we were just messing up simple assignments that we worked on at practice, basically just getting back to our details and playing our starter football.”
Jarquez Hunter, RB
On having the ball on a more consistent basis after the California game…
“It’s fun when you get the opportunity to run the ball. You have to make every opportunity at its best and it’s fun running the football for us running backs and I think we did a decent job doing it.”
On his touchdown catch and if he was expecting it…
“I see everybody just bail out. I tried to be slow because I was trying to make sure that no pressure came through at the end and they just left me wide open.”
On Hank Brown’s performance…
“I think Hank (Brown) did good for his first start. There’s always room for improvement, but I think he did really good.”
Dorian Mausi, LB
On the difference in defense from the first half to the second half…
“When adversity hits, we need to come together closer as a defense. We have to talk in the locker room about really sticking to our calls and playing Auburn football and coming together. A big part of it was communication, communication on the football field. When someone communicates, we make the play for them to play.”
On the adjustments made to defend New Mexico’s Quarterback…
“This week we had a great look on scout team from Grey Reebals. He gave us a great look on how the quarterback was going to run around. He helped us a lot. The quarterback on their side of the ball, he played really well. He talked about keeping your leverage and trust your teammate, know they come on the backside even if you can’t see them, keep your leverage and someone will be there to help you clean it up.”
Camden Brown, WR
On your why and why you continue to put in effort…
“I do it for my little sister, who passed away on August 13, 2021. That’s always my why for everything I do. I would say that’s the main person that I do it for, my family. For my team, there has been so much going on these last few years I am just glad that I can make it happen. I just want to say thank you to the Lord. He did it. I will continue to try every day to be the best version of myself.”
On putting in work in practice and watching it pay off…
“I am a hard worker. Every day, we are going to stack and build. I am a hard worker because of my why. Me and Valdo (Rivaldo Fairweather), we go hard every day. There is never a day that we are not going hard. I feel like we will keep stacking days on top of days, and that is just in me.”
Champ Anthony, CB
On bouncing back from Cal and winning the game…
“It meant a lot. It really shows the team’s adversity. I love my guys, and I know they love football. It just really meant a lot coming back, bouncing back, showing that a loss doesn’t mean anything. It’s a twelve-game season, and we are in the SEC and winning games we are supposed to win.
On playing with more composure and overall thoughts of how the team played…
“We did alright. We had too many penalties. I almost had a selfish penalty. We were just playing with a lot of emotion out there, and we just had to control the emotion and play with controlled anger out there. But I would rather have to turn us down than turn us down, and we are never down. I just love that about my boys.”
Hank Brown, QB
On his goals as a leader…
“As a leader, one thing that I always strive to do is just be a servant to my teammates. However, they need my help. However, I can be there for them, but also at the same time, just motivating and encouraging them. That’s something that comes with time and throughout the offseason, just spending time with them and learning their story. Wherever they are and where and how they grew up. That’s obviously a big part of being a leader – just building relationships with teammates and growing alongside them.”
On his relationship with senior quarterback Payton Thorne…
“He’s been great. He’s awesome. He’s a leader. He does a great job of helping me out from an experience standpoint. We’ve been staying in communication and it’s been good.”
Dillon Wade, OL
On Hank Brown’s performance…
“Hank is pretty special. I’m glad to see him progress and become a better quarterback as he proceeds through this process. I call him, ‘Hank the Tank.’”
On the team’s performance tonight…
“I feel like we played a nice, sound game. We’re going to have problems every single game, but I feel like when we did have a problem, we didn’t break down. We just all came together as a brotherhood.”
Micah Riley, TE
On Hank Brown and his debut at QB…
“He balled out man. The way that he carries himself is great. He always has his Bible. Reading it and talking to guys. He always keeps his spirits up. I’m proud of him and can’t wait for him to ball out his next game.”
On the offense and how many different guys were involved tonight…
“You could see where we are going. We’re trying to get it around, figure out who the playmakers are and who can make stuff happen. We put in Hank Brown. With it being his first game starting, we were seeing what he could do and he did a great job.”
On adjustments in the second half…
“When you watch teams’ games, you kind of prep for something all week and its different. You have to adjust. I did a great job with tight ends and quarterbacks and Hank (Brown) did a great job with calming everyone down.”
On the benefits of this kind of game to reset before starting SEC play…
“It’s definitely important. Last week didn’t go how we wanted and I think today was a great step in the right direction. We’re ready for next week.”
