From the podium: Hugh Freeze ‘proud’ of his team following narrow defeat to No. 1 Georgia

AUBURN — Hugh Freeze delivered a clear message to his team in the locker room after Auburn fell to No. 1 Georgia 27-20 inside an electric Jordan-Hare Stadium, telling them, “I love them, let’s go back to work.”

This is more of Freeze’s overall message:

“I’m really proud of our kids. Coming off a road loss where we didn’t play particularly well, I thought they had a great week of practice and good week of prep, and hopefully they see they can go toe-to-toe with some of the nation’s best. We have more of those coming. That’s what you should build from.

“When you have a chance to beat the No. 1 team in the country and back-to-back national champions at home, the feeling you get if you can pull that off is ecstatic. You can build off that, and hopefully we can build off the way we played better today. It hurts and it’s disappointing we didn’t find a way to get it done today. I’m proud of our kids.

“I tell them all the time, the growth, in life and football, usually happens in the valley than the mountaintop. It’s not fun, it’s not enjoyable, but if handled the right way, it can make you even better in the longterm. Hopefully we’ll take the positives from it when we watch the film, get healthy in the open week, and get ready for more difficult SEC games.

“I hate it, just I’ll work harder for you to have more successes and more opportunities for success. There’s no guarantee when you line up to play in this league. All these tough football games with good football teams. I’m glad to see it bothers us, it stings and it’ll be a restless night for me I’m sure.

“I’m also proud of them. I thought they fought them and fought them for sixty minutes. I thought we had a chance at the end. We had a wide open slant to get a first down, but we don’t execute it. I’d love to see us throw and catch that one and make it interesting.”

That’s about all Freeze and Auburn can do after coming so close to ending Georgia’s now seven-game winning streak in the series. It’s Auburn’s first single-digit loss to Georgia after losing three straight by 20+ points. Here’s everything else Freeze said following the Tigers’ second loss of the season and second loss in conference play.

First thoughts: Down to the wire, Auburn falls to Georgia yet again

Freeze talked about an offensive game plan that saw Auburn net over 300 yards of offense and 20 points against arguably the nation’s best defense in Georgia. Last week, Freeze fretted about the struggles of giving up playcalling and allowing Philip Montgomery full autonomy, saying his frustration is less about Montgomery and more about giving up something he’s always done, and that’s call plays.

“I was really active in the plan. I approved every call that was on the call sheet. I thought our plan was solid. We have to make a few more throws and catches when we have to. I thought we missed some runs, particularly on third down. You look back at this game and look at our third down offense and defense, and that’s where the game was lost for us.”

In the second quarter, Auburn attempted a fourth-and-one from the Georgia 12-yard line. The Tigers ran the ball up the middle and were stuffed following a high snap that started things in motion. Freeze vehemently defended the decision postgame.

“I was 100 percent going for that. I thought we had a great call. I thought the snap was eight foot high. I thought it was a great call and it’s what you should do in that scenario. It’s what the analytics said. In this game, you had to be aggressive. You have less than a yard and it was a bad time to get a high snap for sure.”

Brian Battie was really good yet again, accounting for 53 offensive yards and 85 total yards when you take into account his kickoff return.

“I think he’s a guy we have to get his touches. The stage doesn’t seem to big for him, he can make people miss, he’s shifty, he’s got good hands, and we can use him a lot of ways. I’m proud of the ways he’s progressing.”

Auburn finished the game 2-12 on third down, while Georgia finished 8-13, including 5-7 in the second half. Freeze believes, rightly so, that that specific down was the difference in the game on both sides of the football.

“I think that’s where the game was won and lost. Our third-down offense and third-down defense. Number 19 is a handful and we didn’t do a great job guarding him. I’m sure it wasn’t him every time, but it was him the large majority of the time when the game was on the line. It was hard to get pressure with just four and he made the plays and we obviously couldn’t done some different coverages — we didn’t execute very well.”

Brock Bowers finished with 157 yards receiving and a touchdown in the game, with 121 yards receiving in the fourth quarter alone.

“Mix up coverages, don’t just play straight man, play some bracket coverages on him, and he still found ways to win in tight quarters. Give him credit, he made some plays, but there’s some times where we should have been, should have played more underneath him and not on top of him.”

Freeze started meeting with recruits at 8 am on Saturday morning. It was a significant recruiting weekend for Auburn with multiple five-stars, prospects committed elsewhere and uncommitted prospects visiting.

“Huge. I met with a ton this morning — I’ve seen most all of them. The message is clear. It’s come help us build it. We can do it, it doesn’t take long, we just need people to buy into coming and being a part of the Auburn culture, the Auburn family. Our fans were incredible today, I think it’s exciting to play here and attractive to al ot of recruits. There were a ton here and a lot that can help us feel like we have the same roster as some others in our league playing. Hopefully they enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing some of them.”

Auburn forced two more turnovers on Saturday, pushing the season total to 10 turnovers gained in five games. The Tigers two turnovers forced led directly to 14 points from Auburn’s offense.

“It’s vital. We needed some of that to win this game. We preach when a break comes our way, score, and I think we scored points on both of those. Those were huge and it would have been nice to get two or three more.”

What’s Auburn’s identity under Freeze?

“Our identity is we play hard for 60 minutes, it has to start there. It has to start there that we are going to play physical and hard, and compete for 60 minutes. I think our kids did that. Beyond that, we have to have identity on defense and we have some third-down issues we have to clean up and offensively, we have to run the ball in a lot of different ways and make it look different. We did some of that today. We have to be able to complete the passes we need to complete when they are open — our identity is stay balanced on offense, and defensively, get off the field on third down. But it all starts with us playing really hard.”

Next up for Auburn is a bye week before traveling to LSU, who could be inside the top 10 if they pull off a road win at Ole Miss.

“My gut hurts from not pulling this game off today. I haven’t thought much about the open week yet. I’ll watch the film tomorrow and talk to recruits, then we’ll see what the open week brings.”

Robby Ashford accounted for 33 yards rushing in specific packages that often times featured more than one running back in the backfield with Ashford.

“Robby is going to have a package. We had a good one and he did well in it today. We probably should have run it more.”

Payton Thorne finished with 82 yards passing on 10 completions, adding another 92 yards on the ground, including a 61-yarder in the first quarter to set up Auburn up with points.

“I’d rather watch the film. I thought he did some good things in the run game. We had a couple of plays I thought he had some people open. I know he had two plays in the first half where he did not, he’s got to know where he’s hot at. He’s smart enough and sharp enough to know that, and it cost us sacks. I thought he competed well and played hard and did some good things.”

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