Is Auburn football’s Hugh Freeze still a quarterback guru? His former signal-callers make their claim.

In one aspect, Hugh Freeze’s reputation has always preceded him. From Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Lynchburg, Virginia, those who have watched him work have witnessed it firsthand.

Freeze’s quarterbacks have thrived, and they do so in a high-tempo, run-pass-option scheme that took college football by storm when it began to click for his Ole Miss teams in the 2010s, to the point it beat Nick Saban Alabama teams in 2014 and 2015.

The success of Freeze’s quarterbacks is the most notable constant of his coaching career, and he didn’t mind acknowledging that when he was introduced as Auburn football’s head coach in November 2022.

“I do think I have a gift to help develop quarterbacks,” Freeze said Nov. 29, 2022. “I think, if you look at everywhere we’ve been, we’ve had pretty good success with that.”

He’s yet to live up to that reputation on the Plains, though, enough wonder if he’s lost his touch with it.

While his Auburn tenure has been brief, the quarterback play Freeze has gotten is at or near the bottom of his four stops as an FBS head coach. The Tigers have struggled to find consistency on offense and took a step back record-wise in his second season at the helm.

Things will look mighty different for Auburn in 2025, with Hank Brown, Holden Geriner and Walker White transferring out this offseason. Their departures meant four of the five quarterbacks to take snaps for Freeze at Auburn have left the program.

That trio, as well as two-year starter Payton Thorne, whose eligibility expired this season, will be replaced by two five-star recruits in Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold and 2025 signee Deuce Knight. They’ll be joined by former four-star Tanner Bailey and longtime Stanford starter Ashton Daniels.

Freeze will be staking his reputation on a revamped quarterback room — with his job security on the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/auburn-footballs-hugh-freeze-still-090104854.html

Author : The Montgomery Advertiser

Publish date : 2025-01-11 09:01:00

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