Auburn Tigers' Hugh Freeze Makes Change, finds New Energy in 2024

After an especially challenging 2023, Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze finds some sanity in delegating.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze talks with offensive coordinator Derrick Nix / Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK

Reading between the lines, last season's experience of assuming play calling duties drained Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze more than a little bit.

After all, coaching a major college football program can be exhausting. Being the CEO of a program like Auburn includes recruiting, glad-handing boosters, and oh yeah... coaching.

Before one loses his mind completely, it's best to be reminded that delegation can really work, especially if you fully embrace the process.

"It was absolutely necessary for me to do that, for my sanity and for my help," Freeze said this week about making changes to the coaching staff. "I have to have some help with that. DJ (Durkin), Charles (Kelly) and (Derrick) NIx really have helped me with that. I think it is going to become contagious. The kids see it. It breeds over even some confidence into them, and so I couldn't be more pleased with the chemistry of the staff right now."

Introducing some new faces might have served the short-term purpose of galvanizing the players. That being said, over and above injecting the program with more confidence, more complex elements of installations will follow closely in behind.

This season coming on the offensive side, Freeze will embrace giving up huge portions of control over play calling to his hand picked assistants. Now that he's put offensive coordinator Derrick Nix in a position of authority, he figures it's best to let him get firmly on the same page with starting quarterback Payton Thorne.

"I'm pleased one week in," Freeze enthused. "I think Payton is gaining an understanding of my mind and (Derrick) Nix's mind on how we see this offense operating and what we depend upon him to fix. Had some really good moments where he did some things that made me go, 'All right, that was smart.' And then it's all about him understanding what the fixes are, particularly in our RPO game and in our protection game."

Of course, quarterback coach Kent Austin will also get his fingerprints on the plans for how Thorne and the Auburn offense will attack the more challenging third down scenarios they will face.

Given the trials and tribulations of last season, it could easily have been the case that Freeze might have opted to take things off Thorne's plat. In fact it's been the opposite with Nix, Austin and others dialing straight into the collaborative process with their signal caller.

Very shrewdly, Freeze has stressed the importance of turning the page on the failures of the passing game last year. All of which represented collateral damage which Thorne was front and center within last season.

"I really don't want to remember last year," Freeze conceded. "But I don't want to set him up for undue criticism or anything. Obviously, quarterbacks are going to have that if you don't have success. They're going to get all the praise if you do have success. But I'm pleased with exactly where he is. The work we've done in the offseason to understand each other has been beneficial. I can see it. I think he's very confident. And obviously, having guys he feels like can win at the top end of the route is helpful to eliminate some of that hesitation. That makes for a really bad, bad decision." 

As always, having better players surrounding the quarterback is bound to help Thorne massively, Several  explosive receivers winning their pivotal one-on-one battles cannot be fully quantified right now, but on paper, Auburn has gotten a lot stronger at wide receiver in the offseason.

New season and new attitude has already led to new energy levels - boy does that feel good.