Auburn's offense adapting to massive changes in responsibilities

AUBURN — It’s no secret that Auburn’s coaching staff looks a little bit different now than it did a month ago.

Will Friend and Ike Hilliard are sharing offensive coordinator duties, with Friend being the primary play caller. Friend had no idea what he was getting into taking over a brand new offense and a play sheet he didn’t create.

He found out quickly, though.

“I didn’t when we first did it, then I did after the first hour or two,” Friend joked.

Staffers Kendall Simmons, Joe Bernardi, Jeff McDaniels and Mike Hartline have all been elevated to on-the-field staff positions, as Friend, Hilliard and Williams take over additional duties as coordinators and head coach.

Unfortunately, the staff didn’t have time to create a new organizational chart of the program. Instead, it was get the job done in the most efficient manner possible, try and win a football game, then start over the next week.

“The toughest part is having a group of coaches, then all of a sudden it’s half of it,” Friend said. “The offensive staff has done a great job of being able to adjust to that. That was the biggest thing.”

Auburn has rushed for 250+ yards in three straight games for the first time since Georgia, Alabama and Missouri in the 2013 season.

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New life for the Auburn players

The Tigers’ players feel the new life being injected into the program the last three weeks. But they are also getting a dose of reality as it relates to midseason coaching changes and its impact.

“It’s more the mental struggle than it is anything, just dealing with different people,” senior John Samuel Shenker said. “You know the coordinator, because he was here, but not to this extent. Just kind of manipulating your offense into what they want, that can be very difficult… Especially for young guys who maybe haven’t gone through this yet- dealing with coaching changes and things like that. I think, overall, this team has handled it really well.”

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As soon as Williams, Friend and Hilliard took charge of the offense, they had a mission: to place emphasis back on the run game. With the amount of talent in Auburn running backs, they have had success in doing so.

On Monday afternoon, Tank Bigsby tipped his hats off to Friend and Hilliard. The junior talked about how much he enjoys being able to stick with the run game even when it doesn’t seem to be working.

“…Coach Friend, Coach Ike and Coach Cadillac are finding ways to give us the ball. That’s all I really feel like it comes down to- trying to get your guys the ball so that they can make plays,” Bigsby said. “Some plays may not work, but there’s going to be a couple of those plays that do work. Just stick with it and just try to find ways to get your playmakers the ball. I feel like they’re doing a great job of that.”

Quarterback Robby Ashford has seen his passing attempts drop from 30 per game during his first five starts, to just 18 per game over the last three games. For Ashford, and everyone else, it’s about adjusting on the fly and creating the best plan to win a football game each week. That’s it.

“With the coaching change, everything’s been different. How we operate and how we run things around here,” Ashford said. “As you can see, it’s kind of helped us, we kind of brought life back… Right now we’ve been running the ball really good. It’s kind of just, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? As a quarterback, I feel like a lot of people would be like, ‘Oh, how do you feel’ or ‘Why would you be happy’ because my stats aren’t as great. For me, I don’t care about the stats as long as there’s a ‘W’ in the win column. I don’t care who scores.”

At the end of the day, Auburn’s offense can see the hard work that these coordinators are implementing towards the recent success. The changes aren’t easy for anyone involved, but the men in charge are placing the team in positions to succeed.

“I told Coach Lac and Coach Friend the other day, I’m just thankful for guys like them that can do this,” Shenker said. “They’re not doing it for themselves. They’re doing it for this university and for us. It’s super special to have guys like that who are willing to put their best foot forward each day during these hard times. Not knowing what lies in the future but just being able to go day by day and put your best foot forward, that’s really something I take from this lesson.”