Hugh Freeze Not Taking Match Up Against Arkansas Lightly

Auburn opens SEC play when they play Arkansas this week. The Tigers’ head coach believes they are in for a challenge.

The Auburn Tigers are set to start SEC play on Saturday. He's taking his opponent in Arkansas seriously. Mandatory Credit: Brett Patzke-Imagn Images / Brett Patzke-Imagn Images

Following their 45-19 win over New Mexico on Saturday, the Auburn Tigers set their sights on SEC play.

The Tigers’ conference slate begins with the Arkansas Razorbacks, a 2-1 team with a lot of talent.

Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said he thinks Auburn is in for a challenge and believes Arkansas is a capable opponent.

“A good football team that’s well-coached,” Freeze said on what Arkansas brings to the table as a team. “They’re deep at some places and they look like an SEC football team, particularly the O-line, running backs, tight ends and quarterbacks. Very, very dangerous. Big defensive line - inside guys are huge.”

Freeze is aware of Arkansas’ ability to mix things up defensively and believes that Auburn will see some formations it hasn’t lined up against yet.

“We haven’t been challenged like this,” Freeze said. “They’re (Arkansas) gonna get up and press you and play a mixture of quarters and man and some three and they disguise it pretty good. In all of them they get up and press you so it’s gonna test us. How do we handle getting off the ball against press technique? We haven’t seen a lot of that.”

Arkansas has a veteran offensive coordinator in Bobby Petrino, a coach who Freeze has gone up against before. Freeze is confident in defensive coordinator DJ Durkin and his staff to put a plan together to slow the Razorbacks down.

“I did ask DJ (Durkin) if anything has changed and he says it’s very similar,” Freeze said. “What makes him (Petrino) so different typically has been the mixture of the pro-style offense with some of the college flair in it and doing it out of a lot of big sets with a lot of tight-ends that present extra gaps in the run game but he’s able to throw all of the three level routes and the play-actions off of it also.”

The Tigers look to win their second staraight game against Arkansas. Last season, they won 48-10.

Auburn and Arkansas will face off inside Jordan-Hare Stadium at 2:30 p.m. CT this Saturday, ESPN will carry the broadcast.