Hugh Freeze on Auburn coming out of the bye: 'Let's do less and keep doing it better'

Auburn had a bad first half to their season at just 2-4, including a start of 0-3 in the SEC. With that, the first bye week came at a good time down on The Plains.

Hugh Freeze discussed the Tigers’ idle week during a press conference this week. While having no game and also fall break, Freeze said they did have a pair of practices that each went well with what his team brought to both.

“We had two practices. Obviously, we were on fall break. We lifted and conditioned on Monday and then had a Tuesday and Wednesday practice,” said Freeze. “I thought, the Tuesday one, they attacked extremely well. Wednesday was energetic as you can imagine with them knowing that they had fall break on Thursday and Friday.”

“It really fell at a good time for us,” Freeze said. “I thought their energy was great.”

There was much to work on over their last two weeks or so at Auburn. Again, the Tigers have won just two games with neither coming against a power opponent so far. Three of the four losses have been when they’ve been favored too. They’ve also started this way despite having five of the six at Jordan-Hare.

Still, rather than anything major, Freeze said they didn’t fix all that much over their bye week. In fact, Auburn needs less to do as they just wanted to simplify who they are and what they do as a team.

“The emphasis was on us,” said Freeze. “Just, man, here are the things we’ve got to get better on these short distances and critical downs on both sides, red zone. You know, really, what is our bread and butter? Let’s try to make it look maybe different ways.”

“We probably don’t need more,” Freeze admitted. “Let’s do less and keep doing it better.”

The second half of the season is arguably more difficult for Auburn. They have no home games this month with five conference games left against quality opponents, including three that are currently ranked in the Top-20.

That’s why this was a good stopping point for the Tigers before the final month and a half of the year.

“Had two really good days, truthfully, for an open week. I think having fall break really helped it because I think everybody needed a little break – coaches, players,” said Freeze. “It was a good open week.”