News Article: Hugh Freeze Play calling For 2025 Call Into Question

[colbysullivan]

Who said they were atrocious that would have actually known?
I'm not saying it never happened, but I don't pay much attention to Auburn anyway.

Kirk Herbstreit had Auburn winning the SEC West at a time everyone was on our bandwagon.

A bunch of posters here mocked him, but maybe Herbstreit knows a little more about CFB than they do.

I know Alabama fans go into almost every year with this same narrative of "Auburn in disarray" - and to be fair, it's true more often than not, even in years they're successful.

Did anyone see Auburn winning the national title in 2010? I don't think so.

But I also don't think the 2010 reports were as bad as folks are suddenly remembering them being, either.

Now 2011..........

Yeah, but Herbie himself even said he was just trying to go against the grain and didn’t really think it would happen.

 

[BamaMoon]

IIRC, the barn was terrible the first 2 or 3 games in 2010...barely winning and looking bad doing so...and then sCam suddenly had his coming out party and the "barn brass" had a "wow" moment.

Even they didn't know he was that freaky. Even though they wanted him for 180K reasons they didn't know what they had. It was literally a "happy accident" for them.

He was a generational talent with a generational attitude. He turned out to be generationally "weird" too!

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I would have to do some serious digging and I’m not certain the TF server will allow us to go back that far, but I’m almost positive it was 1-2 mods on this board who knew some AU boosters who had seen practices that fall.

I don’t think the 2025 Auburn team has the same ingredients as that one, especially when it comes to offensive playcalling. I do think that our trip to JH this season will be as adventurous as usual though, unless the bottom just completely falls out and they come into the game with like a 3-8 record.

I've said it on this board a couple of dozen times: Auburn is an 8-4 team every single year historically.
It's just that they GET to 8-4 (on average) unlike any other team you'll ever see.

A college football team with a winning percentage of .725 is almost always a "blue blood" (OU has had a couple of down years and dropped to .723, and I still don't consider Michigan to be, but otherwise it's true). The one exception is USC, who has seen their winning pct drop to .694 with a plethora of so-so seasons and not a single bona fide contending national champion team in the last 20 years. Since 2008, USC has had AT LEAST three losses every year but two, the Covid year and 2011.

What is Auburn's overall winning percentage?
.623

And 8-4 year is .667, and an 8-5 year is .615.

Auburn has played AT LEAST 13 games in a season 19 times in 123 seasons. Of course, the early days sometimes had short seasons and sometimes longer ones. But IN GENERAL, about 1/7 of Auburn's total seasons overall are 13-game seasons. And in those 19 seasons, they have an overall winning pct (I'm serious) of .671, which is basically 8.7-4.3.

Teams with similar percentage-wise records as Auburn (e.g. where they rank historically) are:

Miami .630
Florida .626
Clemson .625
Auburn .623
Washington .618

Miami's has gone down the last 20 years, Florida's went up for awhile until the last ten years or so, and Clemson's is inflated a bit by recent successes in a weak conference.

But NONE of the teams around Auburn has an average 8-4 year quite like Auburn does, either. Go look at most of the years post-national title for the OTHER teams. Sure, Miami was 8-5 in 1984, but go look at their schedule and the fact their losses included the Doug Flutie Hail Mary and the (then) biggest collapse in CFB history (31 points vs Maryland).

Auburn followed up a great 1983 team (11-1) with two teams that were ranked #1 early and both lost four games, giving them a three-year average for those teams of 9-3. Auburn then followed up a 10-3 division champion with seasons of 3-8 and 5-6 followed by losses totaling 4,5,4,5 before Jetgate.

Then, they go unbeaten in 2004 and drop 3, 2, 4, and then 7. Calculate their record in almost any increment, and it is always either 8-4 or VERY CLOSE to 8-4. It's one of the most fascinating things you'll ever see. They're consistent - but not "exactly" consistent. This works because Auburn RARELY has two blockbuster seasons in a row where they go undefeated or lose one game.

Round the decimal points since you can't lose 0.5 games:
1978-82: 7-4
1979-83 - 8-4
1980-84 - 8-4 (despite a national title contender in 1983)
1981-85 - 8-4
1982-86 - 9-3
1983-87 - 9-2 (with 2 ties)
1984-88 - 9-2 (still 2 ties)
1985-89 - 9-2
(Remember: 1987-90 was PEAK PAT DYE, the best they've consistently been for a period of time. In those 4 years, Auburn had two 10-2 years and a 9-1-2 year in 1987. It also coincided with the Bill Curry era at Alabama).
1986-90: 9-2
1987-91: 8-3
1988-92: 8-3

You can plug this in for ALMOST any five-year period of Auburn since the advent of 11-game seasons and it works for them like with others - but in a completely different way, national title years (2010) followed by years of 5 and 9 losses (making their 3-year run in 10-12 average - and I'm serious - 8-4).

 

[AlexanderFan]

I once met with Freeze between his Ole Miss stint and Liberty tenure. He is a very likeable guy and knows how to push the right buttons when interacting with people. One of the things we discussed was his philosophy on offense.

He did some unique things. One of them is he would have ten plays or so that correlated with each other. He had colors associated with those plays. His "Red" plays were all runs. His "Purple" plays were all passes. His "Black" plays were all RPO's. For instance, "Purple 1" was Power Right. "Red 1" was play action off of power right pass. "Black 1" was an RPO that included Power right and an RPO option. He did this so his players could remember the plays but move at an incredibly fast speed.

As most of you know, defenses have adjusted over the years and going as fast as humanly possible on offense isn't what it once was. Time will tell if Freeze can adjust...

I did the same thing on Tecmo Super Bowl, all my plays looked the same.

 

[bamajas]

IIRC, the barn was terrible the first 2 or 3 games in 2010...barely winning and looking bad doing so...and then sCam suddenly had his coming out party and the "barn brass" had a "wow" moment.

Even they didn't know he was that freaky. Even though they wanted him for 180K reasons they didn't know what they had. It was literally a "happy accident" for them.

He was a generational talent with a generational attitude. He turned out to be generationally "weird" too!

I've heard that Gus finally stopped running "his" preferred offense after those first couple of games and re-tooled things for Cam

 

[BamaMoon]

I've heard that Gus finally stopped running "his" preferred offense after those first couple of games and re-tooled things for Cam

sCam's greatest asset was his "broken play ability."

I suspect the offensive plan basically became a one-read passing play and if it's not open, they told him to run.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I saw Freeze on an episode of Marty and McGee and the guy just doesn't look well. His face is very swollen, his eyes are weak, and overall didn't look in good health.

 

[AlexanderFan]

The biggest boon those guys (Cam and Tebow) had were two plus generations of football players and coaches who had never seen a fullback centric offense and eye candy fakes, to go along with referees helping them keep their breakneck pace.

As soon as coaches hammered into those thick football player skulls not to chase the ball but to play their assignment, things got better.

When the referees began to enforce the rules these offenses came back down to Earth.

 

[sanjosecrimson]

"This works because Auburn RARELY has two blockbuster seasons in a row where they go undefeated or lose one game."

very true!
1993 and 1994 was the last time they had an undefeated season ( 11-0) followed by a one loss season ( 9-1-1).
furthermore, auburn football only has one back-to-back 10 win season once and that was back in 1988-89.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

IIRC, the barn was terrible the first 2 or 3 games in 2010...barely winning and looking bad doing so

Auburn won seven games that year by one score.They played Clemson (who wasn't so great that year) out of conference and look at the SEC West:

Mississippi State (9-4) - this was peak Mullen other than 2014
LSU (11-2)
Arkansas (10-3) - and they blew them out despite giving up 43 points
Alabama (10-3)

That's the year MSU smashed Michigan in the bowl game (52-14), and we both know the recruits even under Mullen at MSU should not have been able to beat MICHIGAN that badly. We gobsmacked Sparty (49-7), LSU thumped aTm (41-24), and Arky SHOULD have beaten Ohio State and blew their own feet off.

That's the thing: the moment they lost Cam going into 2011 even if everything else was equal, they were headed towards LOSING rather than winning most of those one score games. The next year they won 3 one score games and got blown out in all 5 losses. And let's be honest, they SHOULD have lost to Utah State that year

 

[4Q Basket Case]

I saw Freeze on an episode of Marty and McGee and the guy just doesn't look well. His face is very swollen, his eyes are weak, and overall didn't look in good health.

I don't know what's causing the bad look. But it's public knowledge that Freeze is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

Could be the treatments causing it. Could be something else.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

"This works because Auburn RARELY has two blockbuster seasons in a row where they go undefeated or lose one game."

very true!
1993 and 1994 was the last time they had an undefeated season ( 11-0) followed by a one loss season ( 9-1-1).
furthermore, auburn football only has one back-to-back 10 win season once and that was back in 1988-89.

Even in that 1994 season, they had a second "transgression" on their record with that tie.

But look at this: again......even with those best records included:

1990-94 (8-3)
1991-95 (8-3)
1992-96 (8-3)
1993-97 (9-2)
1994-98 (8-4)

This is the thing with Auburn; take ALMOST any span of 4 years or longer, and they'll offset an 11-win season with a 5-win season. This appears to almost be unique with them; the other teams around them (Florida, Miami) had superstar decades or eras that offset horrible eras long ago. Auburn CONSISTENTLY follows up a dazzling year with a devastating one 2-3 years later. And it almost always winds up an average of 7 wins (old times) or 8 wins (modern).

1932: 9-0-1
1933: 5-5
1934: 2-8

1952: 2-8
1957: 10-0
1961: 6-4

1963: 9-2
1966: 4-6

1972: 10-1
1973: 6-6