A rested, happier Coach Hugh Freeze spoke with the media after his ULM win, looking ahead to Texas A&M.
Opening Statement
“I thought we played well. I thought the defense won third down. Offense won third down. Those were two critical areas that we focused on. We took care of the football. Didn’t get any takeaways and so that was disappointing. But I think six of the 12 drives went three-and-out. Just thought our defense played really, really solid outside of the first possession of the third quarter. Thought both the offense and the defense started the third quarter lackadaisical. The good thing was they recognized it and owned it and quickly bounced back. So, I thought that was a positive. We can’t do that in the future. We have to learn from that. The crowd was incredible again and special teams were really, really solid. Good to see us go 100 percent from our field goal attempts. Ian (Vachon) did a really nice job along with our protections and snapper and holder in Reed (Hughes) and Oscar (Chapman). I thought it was a solid day for sure against a team that was playing really good football. We did some things that will hopefully give us confidence heading into these last two SEC games which will be against two of the better teams in the country. A&M is loaded, loaded with NFL talent on defense and really, really a problem for you unless you have just the mobility to escape them because they’re constantly putting you under pressure. It’s an issue for us.
Congratulations to Payton Thorne, too, on the Davey O’Brien Foundation. He’s one of the finalists for player of the week or something there. I thought he had a really solid day, too. With this (Texas) A&M team, I haven’t even watched their offense yet, but defensively, they’re a handful.
On what he’ll take from the offensive performance last Saturday into this week…
“We need to get our playmakers involved early and we need to win first down. When we’ve done those two things we’ve been able to kind of get in a rhythm that gave us confidence. I think that showed Saturday and kind of continued throughout the game. One of the secrets to that was us just not carrying very much. The temptation when you’re playing a really good defense like (Texas) A&M is that we have to do a lot of things to try to keep them guessing on what kind of blocking scheme is coming, and then all of the sudden you’re not playing with great confidence in what you’re doing. We’ve been guilty of that some this year, and our kids play a lot better when they feel comfortable that let’s just go execute who we are. Now, are we good enough roster-wise right now to do that and win the games? I don’t know, but I think that’s probably the best chance and scenario for us to give our kids the chance to do it and let’s go see. To answer your question, we won first down and we were able to get into rhythms and get guys involved early besides just Jarquez (Hunter).”
On Ian Vachon’s debut and if he’ll permanently take over kicking duties…
“It’d be hard to take it from him at this point. Again, I think Towns (McGough) is going to be outstanding. He’s just a young freshman. All of our freshmen are making mistakes that are playing. Kickers probably get more magnified than a DB or defensive lineman. I want to be sure everybody hears me loud and clear, I think his future is extremely bright. You don’t get that type of leg strength often. Currently, Ian (Vachon) is batting 1,000. Those have been critical plays in some of our losses that had we made those the whole dynamic of that game at that point kind of changes, so we’re not going to take the ball out of his hands right now. I’m proud of him. It’s a great story. He came through when he got his number called Saturday, so he’ll get another chance.”
On getting the ball to playmakers like Cam Coleman…
“Yeah, I would love to answer that and say absolutely we are throwing to him eight times, but I don’t get to dictate the coverages. Yes, we could design a play to take a shot to him, but it is really hard to design a play that you guarantee he is going to get a short route thrown to him because I don’t know, they could be in cover two. They might be in tight man, it is really hard. It just happened that early in the game Saturday, we had some RPO opportunities, and every one of them was kind of to him and they had a couple third down throws where they had a little mesh route and he was the option on that. I don’t know that pre-snap that he will be, but I would love to say that he is going to get eight and Malcom (Simmons) is going to get eight and Perry (Thompson) is going to get eight and Dre (KeAndre Lambert-Smith) is going to get eight, but that’s very difficult for a coach to know where the ball is going to go when you call one of those pass plays. But it does breed confidence when that does happen.”
On last home game this Saturday…
“I have said it before our crowd has been incredible all year long. I just can’t thank them enough for the support they have given to our players, our staff, and our program. I know they will be there loud and in strong numbers on Saturday night for this contest. We are thankful for that, and we get to honor a bunch of seniors who have put a lot into this program. Obviously in this new transfer world, some have spent more time here than others and nonetheless some guys have spent all their time here and we want to honor them, and I know our fans will. It will be sad and sentimental for some of them to play their last game because Auburn means something to those guys, and it should. Hopefully we can send them out in a way that they will remember it well.”
On confidence going against dynamic quarterbacks…
“That’s something that we were pretty awful at the beginning of the year, and I think we’ve consistently gotten better at containing those dynamic guys. I think the stats show that and I think the games prove that. Hopefully, those experiences are something that we can draw upon, and these guys are really balanced. I do know that. I hadn’t watched a lot of their offense. I’ve seen the stats, and I did get to see a couple of their games when they played at the different times than we played. They’re very balanced. Great running attack and obviously passing. Then the mobility of Marcel (Reed) makes it even more difficult, but we’ve faced some like that, so certainly we’ll draw upon those experiences and also the thoughts that we had both pre-game to those in post-game should we have done something different.“
On what Demarcus Riddick brings to the defense…
“You just answered it for me. We changed when we started playing him. Not that others weren’t playing well in spots, but without someone that has the ability that can run and tackle those dual-threat guys in open field. It’s a problem. And we had that all last year and part of this year and he’s made a difference in that because he has length and can run.“
On the run game schemes…
“You’re always going to lean toward zone schemes. To me, over the spectrum of time, (zone schemes) are going to be like the stock market. Over the spectrum of time, they usually are going to tend to fair out a little better than the gap schemes that are more like crypto. That’s kind of how I put it. They just can be feast or famine. Again, there are so many things that defenses can do. If they decide they really want to wrong shoulder you with some of the size that they have on the edges, in the gap scheme it’s a mess right there at the point of attack. I’m not saying you can’t do things and still make it a positive play, but we’ve started to believe in making them defend both. Over the course of time, it would probably be proven in my career that the wide zone, inside zone, or the mid zone, that those three probably have less of a chance of being a negative play, for sure, than some of the gap schemes.”
On conversations with re-recruiting current roster…
“I don’t do much of that. Our personnel office has been very proactive with talking to our current roster. Jason Campbell does an outstanding job representing our collective in some of those discussions. There are so many changes going on in the world with what we hear might be coming in July. You’re just trying to give them accurate information, but I think you have to be proactive. I just working on coaching them and having genuine relationships with them. I believe that most feel that they can come and have a conversation with me, and two have. I said, ‘I’m going to tell you the truth. Whether you like I am going to shoot it straight to you.’ Most of those have gone through our personnel office, and I like it that way, truthfully. I want to just to continue to work on having real, genuine, authentic relationships and being able to coach and develop them.”
On the importance of avoiding third and longs offensively…
“It was the last thing, when Kirk (Sampson) came to get me and tell me I was running late, the last thing that I had gone through with our offensive staff was, we hadn’t gotten to third-down passes yet, but we were talking about early-down passes and Jake (Thornton) is sweating with some of the things that were on the board. We were just going through how we could maybe change a few of those things. He wants that ball to come out quickly because they (A&M’s defensive players) are dynamic. Those are two first rounders on the edge and inside they are really good, too, so we better win first down and keep it at third-and-manageable.”
On carrying confidence from last weekend into Saturday…
“Our kids have kept fighting. They’ve kept coming to practice and working with our staff and we’ve continued to try to make changes that give these young kids more and more confidence. I think you saw our young receivers play with a little more confidence Saturday. So of it is we limited some of the things that we’re asking them to do. Hopefully that success will bleed over into a great week of practice and prep for an outstanding (Texas) A&M team. Obviously, the roster you’re facing with them is different from last week. They’re one of the best in the country and competing to be in the playoffs this year, and that should excite us. It should excite us to get them at home in front of our crowd, at night in Jordan-Hare, and hopefully the confidence we might have built from the success from last week will carry over.”
On what’s different this year for Texas A&M under Mike Elko…
“You know, I haven’t played (Texas) A&M except for last year. Prior to that I did not see them for several years. I think the rosters are very similar from last year to this year. They were dynamic on defense last year also. Offensively, I think they’re more multiple, probably, and do a few more things. Maybe it’s because of their dual-threat quarterback now, but they do a few more things than they did last year, but there’s no question they’re playing with a championship mentality and effort. I don’t know Mike (Elko) extremely well. I just met him back in SEC meetings. I don’t know what makes a buzz-worthy hire or not, but he’s getting it done and has done a really nice job.”
