Hugh Freeze explains his heavy involvement in offensive playcalling

After kicking off conferee play with four straight losses the Auburn Tigers have rallied, putting together two straight wins, most recently defeating Vanderbilt 31-15 on the road this past Saturday.

It’s no secret that offensively the Tigers have struggled at times this season, but not in their last two games where they’ve averaged 29 points a game compared to the 17.2 points per game they were averaging versus conference competition the four games prior.

Offensive playcalling prowess has been a calling card for Auburn’s first-year head coach Hugh Freeze throughout his career, and lately, he seems to have had more of an impact on the offensive playcalling, which he addressed during a press conference on Tuesday.

“Yeah it’s a collaboration. I’m very involved, but Monty’s calling his share too and it’s a partnership and kind of depends on how it’s going,” Freeze explained. “But I’m very involved with what’s on the call sheet for sure and what shouldn’t be on there.”

Freeze hired Philip Montgomery as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach this offseason after he spent the last eight seasons as the head coach at Tulsa. In his first year at Tulsa, he was able to make an immediate impact as their offense was one of the nation’s leaders the entire season for passing, scoring and total offense.

It has not been the same story at Auburn unfortunately, as the Tigers’ offense ranks in the bottom half in just about every metric except for rushing, where they rank third in the SEC averaging 190.9 yards on the ground per game.

The past two games have been a different story for the Tigers, which could be influenced by a combination of Freeze’s potentially increased role in the offense and Auburn facing two of the bottom four scoring defenses in the SEC.

Quarterback Payton Thorne threw for 230 yards and three touchdowns versus Mississippi State two games ago to mark his most impressive performance by far in conference play this season. While running back Jarquez Hunter is fresh off of a career-high 183 rushing yards and two scores versus Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Auburn’s key offensive players playing their best brand of football to date is surely a great sign, and it will be interesting to see if they can keep their positive momentum going to close out the home stretch of the season. The Tigers have a great opportunity to strike while the iron is hot this weekend, as they face an Arkansas that’s fresh off of their first conference win of the season this past Saturday.