From the podium: Everything Hugh Freeze said following Auburn’s win over Samford

AUBURN — Auburn football did what they needed to do on Saturday night against Samford, and that was move to 3-0 before SEC play begins behind a 45-13 Homecoming win.

“I’m always wanting to improve. There’s times where we don’t play great fundamental football. Those plays I know will haunt us. I want to get rid of those,” Freeze said. “I’m pleased with the kids, I love being around them, the coaches, they are enjoying the journey we’re on. You’re going to get tested here real quick with A&M and Georgia and LSU coming up. It’ll test all of us. We’re young in our journey. How we handle both success and failures will be vital. It’s hard in this profession to celebrate too long.”

Here’s everything Hugh Freeze said following the game.

First thoughts: Auburn dismantles FCS foe Samford, 45-13

Freeze has shown he isn’t one to give out praise in the media for his quarterbacks easily. Following Payton Thorne‘s outing of tallying 405 total yards and three touchdowns (and two picks), Freeze seemed somewhat pleased.

“He hit our guy on the shoulder pad it looked like, I’ll have to watch the film. The next one was a poor decision. He had the shallow wide open and should have checked it down to that. Outside of that, I thought he played really solid. I thought he had a solid day, but the plan was to get more confidence in us being a balanced offense and that was the goal.”

The Auburn stat crew can’t find a player that’s thrown for 300 yards and rushed for 100 in one game. Freeze didn’t know that when he pulled Thorne just 18 yards shy of reaching 300 passing yards.

“Well dang, that’s when y’all are supposed to come tell me. If I would have known that, I would have thought about it. I thought Robby (Ashford) played well when he came in also. I thought Payton was solid outside of the decision on the deep post route. I thought his decision making was good, he ran with it, we called some good draws with him and he looked normal running those, looked natural. I thought it was a solid night for him.”

Freeze talked more about the balance between getting Ashford touches and creating rhythm on offense.

“We weren’t going into this game and be in and out, in and out. We have to find out if Payton is going to function every aspect of the offense, which he did tonight well. We know what Robby can do. It’s good to have both of them. How that looks from game to game, I don’t know.”

Auburn has to stop turning the ball over. That’s six offensive turnovers (seven total) in the last two games. Fortunately for Freeze, the Auburn defense has forced five turnovers on the other side of the ball.

“The two interceptions, we just can’t do it. We have to keep working on it. The punt, we were down to our third punt returner and we have to get him more reps, obviously. We need more reps at that for sure.”

It wasn’t the best night in terms of staying healthy. Kam Stutts left the game after the first series with an injury. Gunner Britton committed some penalties, Izavion Miller left the game with an injured right leg and didn’t return. Keionte Scott left the game in the first quarter, Nehemiah Pritchett missed his third straight game, Donovan Kaufman missed the game as well, Ja’Varrius Johnson didn’t play, and Jalen McLeod played some, but couldn’t go full speed all game. Even Jarquez Hunter got banged up with a right ankle injury.

“We have to get healthy before next weekend.”

Freeze has been waiting for the Auburn receivers to step up. Ten different pass catches on the night, Shane Hooks with a touchdown, Rivaldo Fairweather with some nice grabs, Omari Kelly with a long catch down the middle, and Jay Fair with nearly 100 yards receiving — Freeze saw progress.

“I saw progress this week and some tonight. It was good to have Koy (Moore) back, he’s going to help us. All of them did some decent things. We still have routes to clean up. The one (Jyaire) Shorter had down at the goal line, I thought it was a good throw and he has to make that play. There were good things. We have a ways to go, but they improved tonight.”

On Fairweather: “That’s hopefully who he is going to be every Saturday. He’s a tough matchup. We need him to be himself. We have to find ways to get him the football.”

Auburn ran the ball 43 times for 222 yards on the night, but managed only 30 carries for 86 yards from the running backs.

“I thought we left some yards out there in the rushing game, particularly in the first half. I thought the backs didn’t press it enough. The second half, I thought they were better. I like all those guys. We left some yards out there. They wanted to stop the run and played an odd front with both safeties — they were really active in the box, thus the explosive plays (through the air).”

Freeze wants to see more from Auburn’s short-yardage, red zone and goal-to-go offense.

“We weren’t very good in the first half down there. We have to get some things cleaned up personnel wise. Rivaldo should be in the slot or flexed out every time we get down there pretty much. We need a package for Robby, he’s such a threat. They have to play him pulling the ball on whatever run we have. The reps are incredibly important. We’re about to walk into College Station next weekend and we’re going to need every bit of improvement we can to show a better plan.”

Against Cal, Auburn threw the ball 17 times. Against Samford, Auburn threw the ball 36 times, 25 of which came in the first half.

“I wanted to be balanced and get us some confidence. We’re going to have to throw the football some. And they were playing, they were getting eight in the box quick. A lot of those throws in the first half were off the run game. A lot of times, the read was for Payton to throw it based on the numbers. It wasn’t that we called an extraordinarily large amount…the last series with Robby, every one of those was a run except for the last one that he completed to Riley-Ducker for a touchdown. We are learning the system more and more and feeling comfortable with it.”

The post From the podium: Everything Hugh Freeze said following Auburn’s win over Samford appeared first on On3.