Hugh Freeze, Auburn Poised to Take Advantage of New Rule

Hugh Freeze feels the Auburn Tigers are well placed to capitalize on NCAA Division 1 coaching rule amendment.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze will have more on-field resources at his disposal. / Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK

If distilled down to its pure essence, college coaches and teachers should always be allowed to guide their student-athletes.

Strangely though, it now takes a major NCAA Division 1 rule change to fully facilitate what really should be a matter of fact for football coaches and their students.

You could say that common sense has prevailed in broad terms, and as far as the Auburn Tigers are specifically concerned, head coach Hugh Freeze suddenly has unlimited scope to use on-field coaches.

It's the kind of additional intel and input which will stretch way beyond the previous 11-man game day squad of coaches, and will now include analysts of all different types.

Freeze is enthusiastically embracing the major changes to the college coaching set up, with his belief being he has the brain power in-house already for it to make a tangible difference.

"With the new rule now that guys can assist in technical instruction for our players, I think it's a good, good rule," Freeze said, via al.com last week. "I think it's going to assist us because I think I have some of the best ones in those roles in the nation."

For an Auburn program that's looking to turn their narrative back toward a winning one, it's understandable how Freeze might want to maximize the wider range of available angles.

It's extremely refreshing that the rule change will incorporate graduate assistants, which inevitably will bust wide open the available talent pool Coach Freeze has at his disposal.

Perhaps what's most refreshing, is that the NCAA are now prepared to embrace some new ways of thinking - even if some might say it was in fact staring them right in the face.

In equal measure, any head coach might find the river of information and ideas at their fingertips is both fascinating, and quite possibly a little overwhelming.

If the new way of working can be controlled and managed in the correct way, there's absolutely no reason to buy into the negative belief that too many cooks might spoil the broth.

That being said, pulling all the various strings together to make the puppet move in perfect synchronization, is however, another matter entirely. 

And with that, it's over to you Coach Freeze.