Hugh Freeze Persists with Auburn's 3-Headed Play-Calling Monster

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze continues with the multiple-play-caller strategy which has failed him all season long.

The Auburn Tigers employ three play callers during games. / Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK

Before the Auburn Tigers 2024 season even got underway, head coach Hugh Freeze was busily reassuring everyone that having a three voices combining to call plays on offense could really work.

Now that the Tigers are 3 - 6 and have stumbled and sputtered along the way - we can draw the fairly-safe conclusion that having offensive coordinator Derrick Nix, quarterback coach Kent Austin, and Freeze in the play calling mix has not really worked for Auburn’s offense.

Call it the definition of madness if you like, but Freeze is carrying on with the largely-failed formula of having multiple cooks concocting the broth - with excuses again providing a key ingredient.

"It's a combination," Freeze doubled down on Monday. "Obviously, the game plan is done by all of us sitting in a room as to what we like on base downs and shot plays and third down and redzone. It's usually a mixture. Kent (Austin) handles most of the third-and-longs and (Derrick) Nix and I kind of combine on the rest of it, truthfully. When you look at the yards-per-attempt and stuff it's something that you kind of like, but the points are not coming."

How does the saying go? If you have two quarterbacks, you don't really have one? Well, what about three play callers?

Certainly at times we have seen Freeze try to reassert his command when it comes to play calling duties, but that has mostly consisted of venting toward struggling starting quarterback Payton Thorne. 

In the desperate search to turn yards into points for Freeze and his team of play callers, the recent time away from actual game preparations has led to some brainstorming sessions between the embattled coaching trio. .

"Last week we got to study a lot of teams that are doing really well and are running the same stuff we're running and are making plays," Freeze admitted. "We have to, whether it's us adjusting our calls or limiting what we call so that our kids have confidence still in the receiver room.

“I think we're still young there and in a lot of areas and are maybe asking a bit too much from time to time, and they're not playing maybe as fast as they can play if they have a great understanding of what we're doing. 

“We're evaluating all of that, the calls, the number of things we're carrying, and trying to make sure we can play fast and efficient the remaining three games."

More reflecting on their struggles has been very much the tone of the bye week, and that's maybe very healthy all told. If we can for a second just mute the internal noise about benching Thorne that's been doing the rounds again, it's pretty obvious that playing basic complimentary football has been severely lacking from top to bottom this season.

Consequently, putting themselves behind the eight-ball has bled into Freeze simply being unable to call the type of offense he really wants. At the same time, especially with a young group of receivers to bring along incrementally, Freeze has got to accept a huge portion of the blame for himself.

Even so, it would still appear that the more retrospective and even self-critical version of coach Freeze still stops short of pointing the finger totally at the man in the mirror.

"So hopefully we're through with our backed-up experiences, maybe," Freeze mused. "But some of it's been us with a penalty on special teams, and some it's been ... again, we missed a field goal and they get two first downs, and they're able to hit the sky punts, and they executed them very well against us it seems. Hopefully we've had enough of those experiences that maybe they're through for the year. 

“But it's no fun being a play caller at the 1-yard line."

Depending on what side of the fence you happen to be sitting on, you either are willing to cut Freeze some slack, or are keen to throw him out with the bathwater.

One truth is unavoidably true, poor teams and coaches simply fail to pull all the threads together when they're under pressure, and that's undoubtedly true of the 2024 Auburn Tigers.