Takeaways: Hugh Freeze, Auburn players speak following the season-opening win

AUBURN — Hugh Freeze was in a thankful mood following Auburn’s 59-14 win over UMass on Saturday night. It makes sense. It’s been a winding road since being fired at Ole Miss to today, where Freeze started his head coaching tenure at Auburn.

“To show up at Tiger Walk, which was absolutely incredible. Then to see our largest student crowd ever and largest crowd ever is quite humbling. I can’t say enough about their support and what that means to our staff and our players, administration, everybody here at Auburn. It speaks to the love and passion of the Auburn family,” Freeze said.

“The whole day was a sense of gratitude, truthfully. We are filled with gratefulness and gratitude this morning. It hit this morning as you’re sitting around waiting. I was alone and reading all the texts from my family and everyone was so excited for the day. It’ll be fun to celebrate with family.”

First thoughts: Auburn destroys UMass, cover spread with 45-point win

Auburn was able to play quite a few young players in the blowout win. Jeremiah Cobb, Sylvester Smith, Terrance Love, Champ Anthony, Kayin Lee, Keldric Faulk, Connor Lew, Caleb Burton and more all saw a decent amount of playing time.

“It’s valuable because their parents are here, their girlfriends are here, and they’ve practiced their tail off and there’s no guarantee they get any snaps. We got a lot of kids in today. The last touchdown they scored, we had a young guys in there. The last touchdown on offense, we had three freshmen offensive line in there, our fifth-team back. They don’t get to do that often.”

Speaking of Cobb, he finished with 57 yards, including a 42-yard touchdown run in his first college game.

“I told him this week he’d score his first touchdown. I believed that. I think Jeremiah Cobb is a special talent that is going to have an incredible career at Auburn.”

Freeze said over and over during fall camp that Robby Ashford was important to Auburn winning football games this fall. That was evidenced on Saturday, as Ashford scored three times, all on the ground.

“Every press conference I’ve been in, I’ve said Robby Ashford is vital to us winning football games and I don’t know how else to say it. He’s vital to us winning football games and we need him.”

The Tigers finished with about a 2:1 run-to-pass ratio in the win. Freeze felt like his team could have been as balanced as they wanted to be following the game

“I know, I’ve coached enough games, we could have been as balanced as we wanted to be tonight. Any time you can run effectively, you consider yourself balanced because they have to commit defenders to the box. I felt like we established that early.”

Freeze expounded upon his recent comments about shortening the football game in order to help his defense and support his rushing offense.

“We made some adjustments and I thought we played better than the first drive. We’re still giving up too many explosive plays in the run game. We have to continue to work on that. We went fast the first half offensively, then I didn’t in the second half. I called it off to shorten the game and made sure we took care of ourselves physically. Every game will be different. We want to do what’s right for the whole team.”

It’s just one game, but how much can Freeze take away from the victory?

“In life, in football, we all fail to celebrate victories. I’ve made up my mind for the rest of my career, I’m going to enjoy at least for a few hours, the fact that our team, our staff found a way to win a football game. They aren’t easy to win football games. I want to enjoy that and I want our kids to. We’ll do that. How much can we take away? We’re 1-0. That’s what you can take from it. We’ll watch the film, but next week’s challenge is a different one. We have to win tomorrow, Monday, make choices that define us, chase the standard we’ve set, and prepare to compete again on a difficult trip to the west coast.”

Payton Thorne finished 10-17 for 141 yards and a touchdown on the day. Freeze thought the performance was adequate, but wants more moving forward.

“He made three decisions that were not good, but he played good and protected the football. We didn’t ask him to do a lot in the passing game, truthfully, but I thought he was solid. He’ll be ready to improve on what he sees.”

Freeze added that “we didn’t show” other things they thought they could execute in the game plan.

Freeze talked more about the Tigers’ defensive efforts, specifically the secondary…

“I thought we were unsound on some RPO slants. We did rally to tackle well. Nehemiah Pritchett didn’t play and that forced us to play DJ James and Kayin Lee a lot. Terrance Love played a ton of snaps. For us to not give up any explosive passes was probably pretty good.”

Even without Jalen McLeod, the Auburn defense finished with four sacks.

“I thought we got better at it as the game went on. They crushed the pocket some, which was good to see. We won the turnover battle, which is a gaol of ours every week, and we won the penalty battle. Those are two things we want to win every single week. When you win those two, your percentage to win goes up. I thought we played harder than the scrimmages and the first possession. I thought we showed some passion.”

Freeze was asked about the relationship with his players in a short amount of time. His answer was amusing.

“I do take pride in being a relational coach. I think that’s what I’ve always been. As long as they allow me to speak truth to them, as I see it, if they can handle that. The celebrations, there’s too many celebrations on the field for me, I’m old school. I promised them if they’ll come to the sideline, I’ll do whatever dance you want me to do and look like a fool, let’s just do it on the sideline and do it together. I’ll do that as long as they don’t do it on the field that might hurt us.”

Auburn players react

Jayson Jones, DL
On scouting UMass…
“It helped us that they played a game last week, so we got to know what they looked like at least. We had to stay tuned all the way through the game.”

On crumbling the pocket…
“In a pocket, the most important thing is to be together instead of trying to be an individual. When you are trying to make a play, just do the things within the scheme of defense.”

Jaylin Simpson, CB
On the environment at Jordan-Hare…
“I don’t even know if I saw the grass. All I saw was white in the student section. It was really beautiful. I keep replaying it in my head. I got a little somersault in, and I don’t even remember doing that because I blacked out.”

Jay Fair, WR
On his relationship with Payton Thorne…
“I feel like we put a lot of hard work in together this offseason. Just getting those matchups we were seeing on film and executing those plays felt like we were playing with a good tempo.”

On his touchdown…
“It was pretty good. You practice how you play, so when you get the repetition of the plays in practice, it works like clockwork.”

Eugene Asante, LB
On what stands out to him about the defense’s performance…
“Overall, I think the defense performed well for the first game. We came out and showed a little glimpse of what we could do. There are detailed aspects that we need to fine tune, but other than that the guys gave a lot of effort and if we can continue to fine tune those aspects, we can be really special.”

On what changed for the defense after the initial drive…
“We settled into the game a little more. On that first drive, a lot of guys were antsy for the first game, which comes with a very hyped crowd. The first team settled down and was able to make adjustments by playing hard and loose.”

Kam Stutts, OL
On the offense…
“It was good. We rotated a lot of guys in there, so we are working together well. Letting everyone see all of that hard work coming to the forefront was good.”

On having multiple players rotating…
“For me, I learned my place frontside and backside, so it didn’t really affect me. I know for some of the younger guys it might be harder for them to transition. But like I said, we have some experience there. Those guys know what they’re doing. It helps us keep everybody fresh. I think it’s a good thing.”

Payton Thorne, QB
On what memories will stick from this first game in an Auburn uniform…
“Tiger Walk was awesome! Shout out to our fans for showing up today. They really came in with a lot of enthusiasm. It was very enjoyable.”

On the two-quarterback system …
“It was good. When Robby (Ashford) is running out there, I’m obviously running off. Also, when he gets in the endzone, I’m obviously excited. I don’t really care how we get into the end zone as long as we are scoring points, so that’s exciting. As far as the future, that’s up to Coach (Freeze), not me. But, if that’s how we roll, then I’m cool with that as long as we are scoring points. It was great today.”

Elijah McAllister, Jack
On the younger guys getting a chance to play in the second half and how valuable that is for the team …
“You’re going to need everybody. You don’t know what could happen throughout the course of the season. The young guys getting experience helps them in the long run, not only for the future, but for the immediate course of the season.”

On playing in Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time …
“I heard so much about it and it was everything I could have imagined and more – the energy of the fans and Tiger Walk. It was just amazing. I’m so blessed to be here.”

Robby Ashford, QB
On playing in front of a record, sold-out crowd at Jordan-Hare Stadium …
“It’s the best atmosphere in the country. I’ll argue that with anyone. Our fans, the student section, everybody was great. Thankfully, we came out on the other end with a win. Hopefully, there’s many more to come.”

On Coach Freeze being adamant that he is a vital part of this season’s offense …
“It felt good. Knowing we’re out here making each other better and doing whatever we can to help this team win.”

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