Hugh Freeze talks about Waffle House, offensive balance

It may not have been the most difficult one, but Hugh Freeze passed his first test as Auburn‘s new head coach defeating UMass 59-14 at home on Saturday.

Former Auburn head coach and friend of Freeze’s Gus Malzahn used to celebrate his home wins for the Tigers with a fine dining experience, taking a trip to Waffle House. And following Freeze’s first win for the program, he was asked if he’d celebrate in the same fashion.

“I love Waffle House. But tonight we’ve got a family, I would not try to get all whatever the number we have in somewhere tonight so we’re just gonna do it at my house tonight,” Freeze said. “But Jill and I will find somewhere if we’re ever alone and don’t have family around, which that is very rarely the case on games. My family travels man, they come to most every game. So we’ll find us a spot though, but I’m all Gus and Kristi, love Waffle House and we do too. It’s a good spot.”

Freeze and his wife sound like fans of Waffle House’s food, but maybe not so much the size of the establishment and their ability to host their big family.

Freeze was also asked about the performance of his offense following Saturday’s game, and if he believed they achieved balance between the run and pass game.

“I haven’t looked at the stats but I know, I’ve coached enough games, we could have been as balanced as we wanted to be tonight,” Freeze admitted. “And I think anytime you’re running the football effectively you consider yourself balanced because they have to commit people to the box and I felt like we established that early.”

Freeze was honest after his team had their way versus the Minutemen, and they did reach a certain level of offensive equilibrium rushing for 289 yards and passing for 203 yards.

But the rushing attack was the clear centerpiece of Auburn’s offense, highlighted by seven different rushers recording carries and three of them rushing for over 50 yards. One of those rushers was quarterback Robby Ashford, who may have been beaten out by Payton Thorne for Auburn’s starting quarterback job this offseason, but was a central piece of the Tigers’ run game.

Freeze went to Ashford and his legs when Auburn got in the red zone, wish Ashford punching in three rushing touchdowns on the day.

The Tigers looked good on both sides of the ball on Saturday, but if they can do so in Week 2 versus a Power 5 opponents, it’d be an All-Star Special. Auburn hits the West Coast and faces Cal this Saturday at 10:30 p.m. ET in a matchup airing on ESPN.