It’s game week. It’s time for the coach to sit down with the media and tell them what he thinks. Here’s what Coach Freeze said to the media today as we lead up to the Friday night matchup with the Baylor Bears.
Opening remarks…
“We’re excited. It’s finally here. Our kids are excited, and our fans are. Obviously there’s still work to do, but we’re excited that, at the end of this week, it’s not a scrimmage or a mock game or anything. It’s where you really get tested. I know everyone’s feeling that way, and so are the opponents. I know Baylor will be extremely excited. Coach (Dave) Aranda will have his team ready to compete at a high level. Just watching games from the kickoff in the early week, it’s a stark reminder that mistakes cost you in these games. Hopefully we can play as mistake-free and clean on things that we do to ourselves in game one that give us the best chance to win against a very talented team returning – depends how you look at their depth chart – up to six guys on defense.
“Really impressed with (number) 0 (Jackie Marshall), and 3 (Devyn Bobby), I think those two guys are really good players. They’ve got a highly rated transfer (Matthew Fobbs-White), I think he’s wearing 50, from Tulane, a pass rusher that’s a really good player. Number 27 (Tevin Williams III) is a solid guy, 11 (Keaton Thomas) is returning, a linebacker, he looks like a real SEC-type player. Defensively, Dave has always done a great job. I have great respect for him and know they present a lot of fronts, a lot of movement, and they’re very, very well-coached and disciplined defensively. They finished the year probably as hot as anyone in the regular season, winning six straight. You’ve got to have a lot of confidence.”
“Played one of our league teams in a bowl very close. It was impressive to watch them compete. So I have great respect for Baylor and for the job they’ve done in building that program. Dave, I think he’s in year six or seven now. His quarterback played off-the-charts good the last part of the year, and they have special talent in the return guy, 34 (Josh Cameron). He’s electric and also a very talented receiver. Very talented tight end, and a running back that rushed for over 1,000 yards. They averaged 41 points, I believe, in their last seven games to finish the year. They’re coming in very confident in who they are and returning staff and returning a lot of key players. So it’s a great task to open the year out there, and we’re looking forward to it, expectant (of) big things. Again, I like our team, I like where we’re headed, and this will be a great test for us.”
On trying not to do too much in an opener while also trying to cover all the bases…
“It’s tough because you have too much time. You’ll have your mind set on, ‘This is what we should do,” then you’ll watch another game or you watch another cut-up, and you have three more ideas. Those ideas are worthless if your kids can’t go out and execute at a high level against different pictures that you’re going to see. So I think, having done this awhile, I’m very aware of that threat, and we have to balance that off of each other saying, ‘Do we really, really need this?’ You can’t get everything repped in practice, and you better rep the things you think you’re going to need to win the game over and over again against the different looks and give your quarterback all of those looks. But that is hard for game one. It gets a little easier when you’re in a normal week and you don’t have much time. You’re going to go with your gut and your first instinct, usually, in game planning. So that is a challenge in game one.”
On preparing for a road season opener with a short week…
“Being game one, you have time to plan. So we actually formulated the last two weeks just like it was a Friday game. It is a little different for sure. You have to remind yourself that today is really a Tuesday and you’re not normally on that same schedule. On a normal week, where you’re practicing hard on a Monday or a Sunday. Having it be the first game has helped with that.”
On Jackson Arnold and the outlook at quarterback for game one…
“Jackson, I think, is progressing every practice. I was excited to see him compete in our mock game that we had. I thought his decision making was really good. I wish he would hang in the pocket a little more and go through his progressions. We’re working on that with him. But at the same time, he’s an athlete that creates some things, too, when he does escape the pocket. You have to balance that as a coach, I think. He made good decisions. We’ve got to make sure that we’re not doing too much with the receivers. We want them in the right spots at the right time. I think we’re athletic enough there to win. Just be sure we’re not making stuff up on any given play because you think you see something. Just do what the play is designed to do and I think we’re good enough there to win and get open. That will help our quarterbacks.”
“It will be interesting how we protect in this game with all the different, exotic blitzes that they have. We’ve got a good plan for that, I think. But Jackson, I’m pleased with his progression. But also pleased with Deuce (Knight) and Ashton (Daniels). Deuce the other night was 7-for-7 and looked like nothing fazed him. Again, I know it was not against Baylor. But he was very accurate, stood in the pocket, threw the ball and was really impressive. Ashton did some nice things also. But pleased where Jackson is at and excited to see him go and see what he does under the lights here Friday night.”
On coaches who will be upstairs…
“D.J. (Durkin), obviously I let him decide who he wants up there defensively with him, but offensively, that’s what we did last year. I felt it was best to have both Kent (Austin) and Derrick (Nix) up feeding me information and seeing things from their viewpoint when they make calls for the next drive. I think you can think more clearly up there, probably, and obviously with the tablet use you really can get yourself together. With those two being together there, have a really good plan for the next drive, so that’s what the thinking is that went into that.”
On Eric Singleton Jr. and the rest of the team’s health going into game one…
“He (Singleton) looked good yesterday, I think he’s close to being 100 percent. We’ll continue to protect him a little bit, get him some conditioning, but he’ll be ready to give it a go, Lord willing that nothing else happens this week. I think everybody is at a point that’s going be able to play that hadn’t been already ruled out previously. We’re pleased and thankful for that. Alex McPherson is still going through some testing, and we’ll see where he’s at the end of the week, but at this point, I would expect everybody that’s not been ruled out earlier to give it a go.”
On improvement in pass protection the last week of practice…
“They have improved, and I know that they are very capable of doing that. Again, I say things sometimes and I don’t know if everybody hears anything I say. They see 1,000 different looks right now that probably haven’t been coached very well and protected either. So, I hope that means we have some good one-on-one pass rushers. I think the thought behind that was we were losing too many one-on-ones in that. Baylor certainly has guys that will test us but I feel confident in who our guys are. I think it helps when you get in a game and you’re not playing yourself, and you would hope it doesn’t matter who you play. If you stay in third-and-long, you will stay in trouble. You’re just not going to convert those against quality teams like Baylor.”
“So, I think what helps our offensive line more than anything is winning on first and second down and getting into third-and-manageable situations where we can do both run or pass, which would benefit them greatly. They responded well, and excited to see them have a chance and to go out and prove they are a quality SEC offensive line.”
On having so much depth on defense…
“My first thought was that it’s going to be a long introduction at Jordan-Hare when we introduce our starters on defense, but the truth is that it’s really it. The strength of our defense is in its numbers, and we’ve got to continue to hopefully adapt that mantra and our mindset that it’s not about the quantity of snaps I play, it’s the quality that I produce when I get my chance. And I think that’s really our strength is the numbers and we will play all of those guys, I suspect, on Friday night and he has all camp and he rotates them freely.”
“Whoever goes out there in the first group is never a sure thing and you have to keep producing each day and the competition has made them all better. We’ll see how these young kids do. We’ve got a lot of youth there that are going to play and you’ve got to see how they adjust to the game and usually you’re surprised by one or two guys that you’re like, ‘all right, he’s better on Friday night than he’s shown’ and the other is probably true too. You find out ‘all right, he’s not quite ready, he’s swimming a bit’ when the bullets are live and it gets going pretty fast. So we’ll learn a lot about ourselves like everyone does in week one, but I do expect DJ to play all of those guys.”
On the plan at kicker depending on Alex McPherson’s availability…
“That would be a discussion that Alex and I have on Friday, if he feels like he is able to participate. Then the next question will be, ‘All right, let’s be real, how are you feeling on distance?’ And it may be pregame before we know that. So the answer is yes, we’re getting ready to use other kickers. I think Towns (McGough) has had a solid camp as has (Connor) Gibbs. It’s really close between those two as far as what they’ve graded out as, accuracy-wise. Towns will probably get the first opportunity there. We believe in all three of those guys. Obviously, Alex is super talented and accurate, it’s just a matter of what he feels like he’s able to do and then we’ll go from there with Towns and Gibbs.”
On the anxiety heading into a season opener…
“I’m not a real anxious person, but the more film you watch… we’ve been up since practice has ended watching more tape, and I did just say to them, ‘I think I need to quit watching tape because the more I watch, the better they get in my mind.’ I know they are a really good team, but that does create in you some ‘man, let’s go find out.’ So I guess that is anxiousness, but I am full of excitement of this team. I’ve been around enough to know when you have enough talent to win games, and we do, and we’re not going to run from that. We’re excited about it, and now we have got to go prove that. I don’t know what the results will be on any given game because as you know there’s a lot of teams that can beat you on a given night if you don’t play very well. So that part with new quarterbacks and a lot of young guys on defense and all of that, it’s a question mark for you. But I am excited to go see them play, and I know they are. When I walked into the team room to talk about our theme this week, they were excited and ready.”
On the importance of major donations in today’s athletics climate…
“We couldn’t function in today’s climate without the quality of boosters and supporters we have. It would be impossible. We are blessed here at Auburn to have many great ones that have stepped up and done new things that are a sign of the new climate. That’s just another one. We’re very grateful that we have those people that are willing to do that time and time again. I know they probably get tired of us always calling the same few, but we’re very thankful that we have many great boosters that are helpful in a lot of ways.”
On the development of the team’s pass rush throughout camp…
“I’ve got a sample size that’s huge, and you can’t carry all of that. If they could do everything they’ve done every single day at practice in a single game, it would make you feel very, very great, but you know Baylor is going to dictate, too, some of which we can or cannot do. But I like the athleticism of our edge and like the physicality and push that our inside guys have got against us, and so I hope we see the same thing. I have every reason to feel good about that based on the samples that I’ve seen throughout camp.”
On Horatio Fields…
“Number one, he has become the leader of that room, believe it or not. He is the father figure in that room, the old guy, and he speaks great wisdom to all of that room. We voted on captains yesterday, and he received quite a few votes, and that’s pretty special for a receiver that has come in. I just think that speaks volumes of who we saw in him as a person and as a leader for the young talent. Then you get him here, and on tape you saw length and saw ball skills, but then you get him here and you see his route running and you are like, ‘Man, we have hit on another one, this guy is a solid, solid player.’ He does a lot for us; his football IQ is really high, can learn different positions. Allows us to go with some different personal groupings that he can handle. Really pleased with his camp, for sure.”
On the importance of limiting turnovers…
“I think turnovers spoke volumes about how our season went last year, and it was not just one person’s fault. It was the coaches, it was the players, and it was multiple people. But if you look at what we averaged per play, it just doesn’t add up that we didn’t win more football games until you factor in that we were last in turnovers in the league. I don’t want to talk about it a whole lot. We talked about the ball being the No. 1 important thing offensively, and that’s what we’ll continue to work on and continue to coach decision-making at the quarterback position. And there’s nothing wrong with using your legs. There’s nothing wrong with punting. But we need every possession to end with a kick of some type. That’s the only way I know to do that. We’ll start finding out Friday night who has a comprehension on how important that is.”
On the theme of this week’s team meeting heading into Baylor…
“‘Run your Race’ is the theme this week. We’ve done a deal all throughout camp where we’ve incorporated videos from former players here. We did 10 different sessions on it. There’s a cloud of witnesses that are cheering you on, that are for you, that believe in you and believe you can right the ship and bring glory back to Auburn football, but it’s very important that you understand your race. One of the dangers in life for all of us is, I think, if we were all really honest with ourselves, there’s probably a gap of, ‘Why am I not here yet at this point in my life in some area?’ That comes, usually, from comparison or what you have hoped or dreamed. The most important thing is not, ‘Have you covered that gap?'”
“The most important thing is that you’re still in the race and still running the race. The baton is coming to you. You don’t know when, but this is more like a relay race and the baton gets passed. This is not an individual race. It’s a relay one. You have a team. I showed them great pictures this morning of Michael Phelps on a relay and Usain Bolt. The pure excitement on their faces as they’re passing the baton in Usain’s case or Phelps cheering on his guy coming to the end. That’s totally different than an individual race. You might have your mom at the end of an individual track race or your grandma or someone, but you put a relay race on and the whole stadium is into it. It’s important that you run yours. Yours may not come in the first quarter, and yours may not come in the second quarter, but that baton is going to hit your hand at some point, and will you be ready for it? How you run your race today matters in your preparation for that.”
On preparing for Dave Aranda’s unique defense…
“Obviously, I’ve known Dave for years. We’ve gone against each other, and I’ve gone against guys that have come up under him and have coached with some. It’s all about the simulated pressures, and that certainly hasn’t changed. They do a great job of disguising it and not knowing exactly who it is that’s going to be the pressure guy. He hasn’t changed that. I know he took over play calling last year. I assume he is this year but don’t know that. I know that you’ll see simulated pressures quite frequently, most every play.”
