Hugh Freeze calls out himself, coaching staff after self-review during bye week

Auburn went into its bye week off back-to-back losses, both by one score. The Tigers are a hair away from having a very different outlook on the season, and coach Hugh Freeze knows it.

He also knows it’s on him. Freeze made no bones about that after reconvening from the bye week.

“The first thing again I’d say and love to put this behind us and move on to Georgia is just it starts with me and with our staff having us adequately prepared to not be behind the chains the whole night,” Freeze said. “We’ve done a really good job of taking care of the football, but now you look at the last two games and we certainly have put ourselves behind the chains way too much with some undisciplined penalties and questionable play-calling that puts us behind the chains that we obviously either didn’t coach well enough to execute or we’re just not good schematically plays.”

The good news for Hugh Freeze and Auburn? Both of those two losses were on the road.

Even better news? The next two games will both be at home, albeit against ranked opponents.

Want to turn the season around and it starts with finding a way to come up with a win over Georgia or Missouri over the next two weeks. Auburn could desperately use a big win.

To that end, Hugh Freeze and his staff were hard at work during the bye week trying to self scout. Figure out ways to overcome the problem spots and perhaps the Tigers can turn things around.

“We’ve studied it all,” Freeze said. “Got to find a way to stay ahead of the chains and, again, playing at home does make what we want to do a little bit easier. But playing against defenses like A&M, Georgia, Oklahoma, you’ve still got to execute really well and have a great plan. So there wasn’t much time off during the open week for the staff, at least, or the kids, truthfully. Looking for ways to make sure we improve that.”

Hugh Freeze has clearly improved the actual quality of play at Auburn over a year ago. Whether he can improve the record remains an open-ended question.

The next two weeks will tell a lot. The Tigers could really use a big win right now. Perhaps the self scouting will pay dividends.