An honest Coach Hugh Freeze sat down with the media to close out Oklahoma and move on to Georgia.
Opening remarks…
“Good morning. Let me start by saying that, man, Saturday hurt our kids, our staff, and I’m sure it hurt our incredible fans, who – to have five straight home games to open the season – they’ve been just marvelous. Our students, our band, our cheerleaders, they’ve been incredible. And I’m sure they were hurt, just like our kids felt gutted, staff and everybody a part of it. We’re judged on results, and it’s my responsibility to bring results to this program that restore its glory, that not only restores the glory of the Auburn football team on the field, but also I firmly believe that part of my job is to build up Auburn men. That is one thing that I do believe and see occurring even through the hardships that we’re going through, and it’s something that we take very seriously. When you talk to them, I feel like we’re accomplishing good things there. Now, obviously, we want to add to not only building up men first, but returning the glory to Auburn football. We’re working tirelessly to do both, truthfully. That’s why I teach truth lessons on Monday and Thursday about life, the lessons we can learn from the game of football for that.
“Our fan base has done their part, which makes not being 5-0 very hard to swallow. We certainly had our chances to do that. My ask is to stick with us through the growing pains and support our guys and efforts and our recruiting efforts, because the results are going to come. We’re not that far off. And hope the ‘25 recruiting class sees that and knows they have a chance to come in and immediately impact this program, just like the ‘24 class is currently doing. But building does take time. I think you all are aware of what we inherited. Our AD has done a marvelous job of explaining that. He did to me before I took the job, with the previous recruiting classes not being what you need to compete at a high level. And 57 transfers out in the previous three years before my arrival. So building takes time. But our process, when complete, is going to make everyone very, very proud to wear the orange and blue. It’s making ground, the process is. I see it. The record doesn’t reflect it, even when playing 12 freshmen and a combination of the 49 guys that played Saturday, there were 24, if you count our kicker, 24 freshmen and sophomores that played the majority of the snaps. And I use that for my recruiting pitch. We’ll play you early. So let’s finish this ‘25 class up and give us some more depth that we need to compete in this great conference.
“We must continue to get better in every facet, and that’s my job, including coaching situational football better, putting our players in the best possible situations for their abilities to provide them success. It doesn’t really matter if I think something’s a great call, great decision, if it doesn’t match up with the capabilities of our young men, I can’t put them in those situations. And I told our players postgame that I couldn’t be more proud of them, their effort, their preparation. They deserved to win that game, and they played their guts out. I can’t fault a single play on that film on effort. And I told our staff that honestly, it’s one of the better game plans that a staff has put together in my time. The offensive guys under coach (Derrick) Nix and Kent (Austin) and Jake (Thornton) and Ben (Aigamaua) and Marcus (Davis) and obviously all the supporting staff. I thought the plan was excellent. Thought the plan on defense was excellent, and I was proud of both the players and the staffs. It was a really good plan.
“There are many positives to build from, from that game. If you look at 90% of the plays, there’s a lot of really, really good things that I hope can carry over as we get ready for a top ranked team in Georgia. We certainly can’t let the hurt and the sting of losing a game that you feel like you should have won tarry too long because we’ve got some very tough tasks facing us voming up with two top 10 teams on the road. October is a road challenge for us, we haven’t experienced that yet. And again, as we mentioned earlier, we’re playing about 50% of our guys are young guys, and they haven’t experienced what we’re getting ready to experience. So that’s going to be a challenge for us, but one that that we’re looking forward to, excited to do. Some great positives from Saturday. Demarcus Riddick led us in tackles. True freshmen, (Malcolm) Simmons and (Cam) Coleman combined for almost 150 yards receiving. Offense had 26 first downs, I believe, almost 500 yards of offense. Defense held them to 290 yards, 2-for-11 on third downs, which is a huge improvement from the previous weeks on our third down work. It’s just frustrating to sit here and tell you all that and to know what the results are.
“That’s the complicated thing, taking ownership of that and still pointing out the positives. Offensively, we’re number three in the conference for fewest penalties, number five in the conference for passing, number one in the conference for explosive pass plays per completion. Number eight in total offense, five yards per carry. You know, just there’s a lot of positives that are not matching up with the results. There’s some negatives, too. We’re 16th in the conference in time of possession. We’re 16th and turnover margin. You know, that’s the things that have really, really cost us. We lost the three games we lost an average of 7.7 points in those games and have had 11 turnovers. So there’s a lot of positives to build upon and extremely proud of the effort that our kids and staff gave to prepare for a really good football team in Oklahoma, particularly defensively. They’re one of the best. Thankful again for our wonderful fans and their support. Now we’ve got to get ready for a very difficult Georgia team who’s loaded with talent and experience and maturity and obviously well-coached. Great respect for Kirby (Smart), the job he’s done and the classes he’s stacked there make them one of the nation’s elite.”
On his biggest regret from the Oklahoma game…
“I’m very transparent and have watched (the tape) like three times, and I usually stop at two. Let’s start, that first half, it easily could’ve been 24-7 at half. We get down to the one or two, and two shots from there we went with a package that we’ve worked on for several weeks. I truthfully regret not giving it to Jarquez (Hunter) down there at least once. You’re going to miss some field goals, but it’d have been nice to have gotten that one right before half, for sure. Certainly, (Towns McGough) is very capable of making those, but that happens. The first half, it’s really not scoring the touchdown, and I thought the offense did a good job getting us in field position to kick a field goal. I thought that was a really good drive. This was a weird situation, but the play right before we had to go mayday, and it was good to see us execute mayday really well. You just didn’t really want to have to do that.
The ball should’ve went to the endzone, but that really wasn’t Payton’s (Thorne) fault because the one scenario, and I’m getting way into it but I want to own everything that needs to be owned, there was a look that (Oklahoma) would give from time to time that our whole plan was we have to check to a ‘max’ call to get us protected, but that was a third-down thought. As soon as he gave the signal for ‘max, max, max’, with that came all of the routes. So the call I had made to take the shot to the endzone, when he had to go ‘max’ it reverted to the third-down routes in a normal scenario, which wasn’t terrible because we were prepared for mayday and you have to go out there and make those. There’s so many things that happen in a game and you’re like ‘Oh my gosh’. We had a great plan for that on third down, but we didn’t talk about it being third down with one play to go. You learn from that. That’s the first half. The second half, truthfully, I loved the plan and thought it was effective. The two third-and-fours, one in the third quarter where we missed another field goal, we had a sack that pushed us back a little bit on that third-and-4. I wish I would’ve just played it like two-down territory and maybe ran it to see if we could’ve got it to fourth-and-1. Then obviously the third-and-4 interception for a touchdown. In hindsight I wish I’d have just controlled it and ran it and punted it. That’s what the film says, and all of that is in hindsight.
Payton is mature, but sometimes I probably just need to … the conversation with the helmet stuff is good and it really worked well for us most of the game, you wish you’d just throw that away or take the sack and punt it. Again, in hindsight, just let me control it and run the ball, punt it and see if we can play defense.”
On the young defensive backs (Riddick, Crawford, Harris) and their impact on the game…
“Well, they had no experience. There’s nothing like playing in a game. You start to see, and again without being negative toward any other players, you start to see that we’re recruiting kids that can make a difference. That can run and they can tackle. We hadn’t run a quarterback down in a scramble in a while and here goes (Demarcus) Riddick in the game. He doesn’t know half of what to do really with every call right now. But when you’re an athlete, you’re an athlete. That guy runs a very fast quarterback down on several occasions. That’s the type of recruiting we have to have and that we are doing and going to add to us very soon. I thought he and Jay Crawford played solid also. (Malik) Blocton is playing a ton of snaps and of course all the receivers. Just playing a lot of young kids for sure and proud to see them start having some successes. T (Terrance) Love got in the game and did some good things and that’s good to see. Playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores. Its good to see and get those experiences in the game.”
On letting the QB make decisions on RPOs vs. making calls from the sideline…
“Yeah, that’s a balancing act. There were a lot of runs where we did. It was handoff all the way and others. We still believe in giving the option. That team we played against doesn’t give up many rushing yards. You go look. They are loaded with NFL guys. Those safeties, linebackers, and ends are NFL dudes. And there was one run play we had, it was an automatic give and that No. 2 (Oklahoma’s Billy Bowman Jr.), he was one of the best I’ve seen in a long, long time. He makes a tackle on Jarquez (Hunter) for a one-yard gain, and he was lined up 14 yards deep. He is pretty dang good. Yes, there is a balancing act. You can do that, but then everybody is going to yell and scream when you do that. And you have too many guys, but nobody to block him. So, I think it’s a balancing act for sure, but we definitely want 27 (Jarquez Hunter) to get his share of touches. When you do throw the RPO, it’s our job to make sure it’s thrown to the right RPO. That’s where we are still struggling a little bit, so we have to keep working to get that corrected.”
On lack of success in red zone/short yardage situations…
“Yeah, I am really disappointed that we didn’t score that touchdown obviously. Truthfully, the first time we did it we should have scored. I don’t ever want to sound like – and everybody seems to think that when I tell you what really happened – that I throw somebody under the bus. I’m not. On the first one we lost (Brandon) Frazier to a broken foot, and he’s usually in that position, and we had to sub in for him someone who was an O-lineman who doesn’t get all those looks a tight end gets. And they gave us a squirrely look, and he did not go to the right spot, and thus it ate up two of our pullers. If we could have got those two pullers around, I think we walk in. That’s on us as coaches.
Once we lose somebody it’s next man up, and you have to get them ready, and we obviously didn’t have that one guy ready for that play. So that’s frustrating when you watch that. The play before that, they had a really good call on. But if we totally understood, again back to coaching, if we totally understood every single look, I think we walk in on that one, too. But it’s hard to show. They’re game planning too, and it’s hard to show every single look when you look at the tape and you say ‘the facts are if we have covered this look, it is a really good call and it’s going to score.’ If you look back at the practice tape, we never showed them that particular look. Obviously if we show them as many as we think we can, hopefully we get the right looks and talk to our kids to execute those short yardage plays.”
On Payton Thorne’s performance vs. Oklahoma…
“I told him after the game I thought he laid it on the line for our kids, for our team, for our program. He sacrificed his body. He gave himself up many times to get us first downs. We have an “oh crap” rule that means if my progression is not there pretty quick, then we have to put a foot in the ground and go that way. He put us at 2nd-and-8, and we can live with that. I thought he really played solid. Obviously, he wishes he could have one throw back, as everybody does, but I thought he laid it on the line for us and for the team. It’s what we expect from him at the start of the season and moving forward. It’s hard to say that he is not the starter in these kind of games. He gives us the best chance to win as long as he keeps taking care of the football like he did.”
On keeping the team invested despite difficult losses…
“The media is into this spiraling and keep them together. If that is a question about your team, then you probably are not going to have a whole lot of success. In life, you don’t get the chance to spiral and then have success, and it’s the same way in football. That will be my lesson today that I have planned since the summer, which I think is perfect for our moment, and I am going to give some real-life examples of myself. At times in life you have to draw the line on what am I really in this for and what did I really sign up for? What happens when you sign up for a job and it doesn’t go the way you want, do you spiral? There is not another option. We get the opportunity this week to go play one of the top teams in the country with a really young, building team, and we see it as a another great opportunity.
Yes, it is a tough October. Yes, there will be some great challenges. We could certainty lose some games, we could certainly win some games. Every week is a new life of its own. Every day you expect your staff and your team to show up and to be ready to go and fight again. Yeah, it hurts, and it stings, but you’re not the only one who got a bad report. There’s a lot of people in life that have gotten a bad report, had a bad week, and had difficult times. Maybe we could be an example of during difficult times that those who want to tear you down or beat you up or praise you, you still go to work with the same energy and passion and you love what you do, love who you do it with, and most importantly who you do it for. We have a great place to represent in doing that. We are not going to blink as a staff and I don’t expect our kids to either. “
On leaning on the defense after strong performances the last two weeks…
“Yeah, other than the third and longs they’ve been really constant and containing the quarterback with rush lanes. So you take this game you can’t argue the improvement on containing rush lanes and the third down defense. I thought that our kids and our staff did a marvelous job, it comes down to the few plays we’ve described earlier when you asked me about that. And then defensively, it comes down to, truthfully, the explosive pass play that we gave up in the fourth quarter. That quarterback was going to have one or two, but I’m glad it came early. Then after that I thought our rush lanes were contained pretty well. The big, explosive plays there later in the games were the ones that really hurt us. Outside of that, I thought our defense played phenomenal.”
On Malcolm Simmons and other young players…
“I think that, again, they’re just young, and it takes time. There’s a process to developing, and very few, but there are some that come in and are totally ready, and most of them probably got there early. But you’re starting to see him understand a few more things. He still has things to learn, like we threw him two more bubble screens, and for 18 years now he’s up in Alexander City; he’s taking that and just outrunning everybody to the sidelines and been able to do it, but here it’s not quite that way. But here is where he is going to learn, and if he puts his foot in the ground on a couple of those, those are like 10-yard gains, so there’s still things he’s learning. The great thing is he’s so fun to coach, and he wants to be coached, and he loves to play the game. So you’re starting to see it. Perry (Thompson) had a great week in practice, we need to get him in more games. I thought all of those, DeMarcus Riddick, man, we could go on and on, because they’re so young and of course Cam’s (Coleman) coming on too and starting to get healthy again. It’s good to see all of those young kids have success.”
On realistic expectations from fans given the situation the current staff inherited…
“I won’t comment on what happened before I was here. The roster was what it was. Everybody can make their own determination on that, on how many people left and the recruiting rankings and what was brought in. So, you can look at that and make your own determination. Should the fans expect more in than a 2-3 start, absolutely. We could easily, like I said in my opening statement sitting here, be 5-0. But we didn’t get it done. We can point to the coaching errors, and we can point to the 11 turnovers and all those things. It’s a mixture. We could point to our youth. Like I said earlier, we can sit here and talk about all those things, but we are a result-oriented profession, and those results didn’t go our way.
So, there’s no way that I can sit here and say that those three games weren’t winnable. So that’s the toughest thing for me to say to them because I know what the sacrifices our boosters and families and supporters, administration and everybody who pours into supporting this program, and you don’t deliver on it. It’s one thing if I sat here and I said we got our tails whipped, and they were just better than us, deeper than us. And I’m not taking anything away from any of those teams. They found a way to win the games, but we found a way to lose them in my mind, and that is hardest thing about sitting here with a 2-3 record.“
On the message to young players who didn’t experience many losses in high school…
“Welcome to life. If it hasn’t hit you and if you’ve never experienced that in high school – the difficult gut punches and losses – just keep living, and they’ll come. Man, there’s no other group I’d rather do this with and help teach you lessons through this time. And you’ll see that we are not far off, and you are going to be a huge role in turning this program back around to being where it belongs, so stay the course.“
On Cam Coleman chasing down the defender on the interception…
“I’m glad you brought that up. The strain to win. We’ll show some tape today and obviously, I think our team played extremely, extremely hard. There are still a few plays there that if we strained a little harder to sustain a block a little longer, that run becomes 30 yards. If we don’t loaf right here, that gain tackle and your assist on this guy that has him instead of him falling forward four yards, that’s a no gain. I’m obviously really proud of hard they played, but there are still those times where, all right, let’s strain a little harder to win. There’s no better tape of showing what our young kids are like than Cam Coleman on that interception. I mean, being relentless on chasing him down. Almost got there to get him.”
