Nick Saban Compliments the Complexity of Hugh Freeze's Offense

Hugh Freeze bested Nick Saban twice while leading the Ole Miss Rebels. This weekend will be his first opportunity while leading the Tigers.

This Saturday's matchup will be the first time Nick Saban and Hugh Freeze will face off against one other on the gridiron in six years. 

While Saban's Crimson Tide enters this weekend's Iron Bowl as a 14-point favorite and first year Auburn coach Freeze is sputtering into the season finale, its hard to ignore the intertwined history the two coaches share.

Freeze became the first coach in the SEC to beat Saban in back-to-back seasons at Alabama while he was still in charge of the Ole Miss Rebels. In fact, Freeze took two of the final three meetings between the two coaches and played the Tide to a five-point game in their last matchup.

"He's, to me, one of the best offensive coaches in the country in terms of taking the personnel and the players he has and doing what he needs to do to help them be successful," said Saban on Wednesday. "They present a lot of multiples that give you problems to try and stay gap sound against the run and they've done a good job all year with it. So our players are going to have to be zeroed in on making the adjustments that we need to make and I'm sure we'll probably see something different in the game than what we practiced, so I think Hugh's one of the best, most difficult preparations that we have when we play against his offenses."

This year's Auburn Tigers enter the Iron Bowl vastly undermanned on the offensive side of the football, as Freeze has been switching back and forth between quarterbacks Peyton Thorne and Robby Ashford. 

The Tigers are No. 87 in yards per game and No. 67 in scoring offense nationally, showing that while Freeze may be an offensive genius, he's at least a year away from playing with the talent needed to take the offense to the next level.

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