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Auburn

Hugh Freeze emphasizes need to eliminate QB turnovers this season

FaceProfileby: Thomas Goldkamp08/26/25
Hugh Freeze

Going into the 2025 season, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze is feeling the mounting pressure. His first two seasons haven’t gone exactly according to plan. Turnovers have been a huge part of that.

Auburn couldn’t hang onto the football last year, something that Freeze said was a direct factor in wins and losses. He’ aiming for the whole team to improve this fall, starting with the quarterbacks.

“I think turnovers speaks volumes about how our season went last year,” Freeze said. “It was not just one person’s fault, it was coaches, it was players and multiple (things). But if you look at what we average per play it just doesn’t add up that we didn’t win more football games until you factor in that we were last in turnovers in the league.”

Auburn threw 13 interceptions. It also fumbled 15 times, losing nine of them. That’ll get you beat in the SEC.

For his part, Freeze isn’t harping on the turnovers all that much. Call it superstition or whatever else, he’s insistent that his team cleans things up. It’s the only way to get where they want to go. But overly talking about it won’t solve much.

“I don’t like to talk about it a whole lot,” Freeze said. “We talk about the ball being the No. 1 important thing offensively. That’s what we’ll continue to work on and continue to coach decision-making at the quarterback position. There’s nothing wrong with using your legs, there’s nothing wrong with punting. But we need every possession to end with a kick of some type.”

The message is simple. We either punt it away and live for another possession or we kick a field goal or an extra point. No possessions ruined by turnovers.

“That’s the only way I know to do that,” Freeze said. “We’ll start finding out Friday night who has a comprehension of how important that is.”

Auburn will take on Baylor on Friday night in the season opener. Charged with leading the turnover-free version of the Tigers is new starting quarterback Jackson Arnold. The game will begin at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.