Why Hugh Freeze is taking over Auburn's offensive playcalling in Year 2

When Hugh Freeze took over at Auburn a year ago, he initially opted to take a step back from play-calling. Instead, Philip Montgomery called the plays while Freeze served in more of a de facto CEO role while re-establishing himself in the SEC.

After a 6-7 first season on The Plains, Freeze made some changes. Montgomery is out, and Freeze is taking over the play-calling duties. Auburn had an up-and-down year on the offensive side of the ball, averaging 351.2 yards per game and 26.2 points per game.

With Freeze taking back the keys, it’s a sign he’s shifting into a “win-now” type of mentality as he gets ready for his second year, according to Auburn Live’s Justin Hokanson.

“It’s a really interesting dynamic,” Hokanson told Andy Staples on Andy Staples On3. “I think he’s definitely more comfortable calling plays, and he feels like he’s good at that. He made the comment this year at one point that, he said at one point, ‘I would like to think of myself as is one of the better play-callers in college football.’ But to his credit, it was a moment of honesty. He kind of was like, ‘But I don’t know that that’s necessarily now, but at one point, I thought I was that person.’ And so he thinks a lot of his ability to call plays.

“I think the way the offense sort of unfolded this year, made him go, ‘I don’t know that I can be on the outside looking into this thing,’ because he wanted to be involved, but there were some terminology issues that sort of caused some hesitancy where Philip Montgomery had inserted his entire offense and terminology, and there were times where Hugh was hesitant to get involved because he didn’t completely know all of that terminology. And so he’s like, ‘Well, if I step in here, I could make things more confusing.’ But you could see it on his face. He was struggling with, ‘Do I get involved? How much do I get involved? Do I let Philip Montgomery do the job? Am I gonna make it worse if I get involved?'”

Hugh Freeze focused on recruiting, NIL while handing off play-calling duties in Year 1

When Hugh Freeze was last in the SEC at Ole Miss, NIL wasn’t part of the landscape. That came about in July 2021 while he was at Liberty. As a result, he had to familiarize himself with that part of the recruiting trail while also using his prowess to bring in top-ranked players.

It worked out. Auburn’s 2024 class is currently the No. 8-ranked group in the country, according to the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Ranking. That’s why, according to Hokanson, it makes sense for Freeze to now shift his focus back to calling plays and lean on his staff to continue the recruiting success.

“The thing he pointed to a lot was, ‘I needed to take a step back and recruit and align our NIL and boosters and get a lay of the land. I needed to make sure that this first recruiting class was on point,'” Hokanson said. “And that was just a bigger deal to him. I think he made that a priority over calling plays. He thought, one or the other. I could call the plays, but I have to get recruiting right. And Hugh was a major part of this recruiting class. He was calling prospects and texting, he was on the phone with a lot of these guys as much as any of the other assistant coaches. He made it a massive priority.

“I think the question I have is, going back to calling plays — I think is smart for Hugh. Like, I have no issue with that. But does he feel good enough about the state of the recruiting apparatus? Because if he thought it was so important that he stayed out of play-calling to do that in Year 1, in one year, is it where he’s comfortable at to now, he’s like, ‘Okay, I can go out and call plays. I think we’ve I think everybody’s aligned, I think we’ve done enough, I feel good about the new staff.’ … Maybe he feels it’s in a decent spot and the boosters everybody are aligned, NIL-wise, and he feels like, ‘Okay, I’ve gotta lay the land. I’ve got this thing a little bit organized where I think I can call plays and we can do it.'”