Stagnant Offense With No Identity Dooms Tigers
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“Black Saturday” on November 17th, 2001, remains one of the most disappointing Auburn losses in fandom memory. That painful Saturday a depleted Alabama football team guided by first year coach, Dennis Franchione, rolled into Jordan-Hare Stadium embarrassing heavily favored Auburn in The Iron Bowl 31-7. The loss, to say the least, and how it occurred was shocking to the Tiger faithful.
After that game, younger Auburn fans realized quickly just how cutthroat big business, especially the multi-million-dollar big business of SEC football programs like Auburn, can be. Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville quickly distanced himself and his career moving forward at Auburn by relieving the duties of both his offensive and defensive coordinators. Those coaches, Noel Mazzone and John Lovett, had been with Tuberville since he first took the head coaching job at Ole Miss in 1995 until being unceremoniously fired at Auburn in 2001. Deciding to bank his future at Auburn on a different pathway, Tuberville and the Tigers embarked on a nationwide coordinator search settling on Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator and Gene Chizik as defensive coordinator. Both would find great success at times, moving on with their careers after a stay at AU with Tommy Tuberville.
Success came quicker for Petrino, who only after one solid year at Auburn in 2002, would be offered the head coaching position at Louisville. Chizik would stay at Auburn until 2004, then move to Texas as defensive coordinator, and then end up at Iowa State as head coach of The Cyclones. After Bobby Petrino left for Louisville, Tuberville decided to stay “in house” promoting offensive line coach, Hugh Nall, to then offensive coordinator. His job was to build on the foundation Petrino left making Auburn more “pro like” with their offense. Nall never seemed to grasp the roll for whatever reasons and failed. Midway through 2003 a consultant in Steve Ensminger was brought in to help Nall salvage what was left of a preseason Number 1 ranking for Auburn that went south quickly to start the season. Tuberville would not make the same mistake again in 2004 and after a nationwide search for an offensive coordinator, Al Borges came to the Plains to help guide the Tigers to an undefeated hard fighting soldiers' season to remember. Before our eyes, Auburn fans watched a younger coach grow up before their eyes into a true CEO.
Fast forward 20 years after another bitter defeat inside Jordan-Hare Stadium to Vanderbilt yesterday, Saturday, November 2, 2024, with a score of 17-7, and history seems to be repeating itself once again within the Auburn football program. After his first year as head coach at Auburn, another former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, decided to sack both his offensive and defensive coordinators following a disappointing season. Former offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery especially took the brunt of criticism last year while Auburn only averaged 24 points per game against Power Four schools in the 2023 regular season. Hugh Freeze then turned to trusted insiders within his coaching family tree hiring Derrik Nix away from-you guessed it-Ole Miss, partnering him with former Rebel player/coach Kent Austin to form a new coalition coordinating the Auburn offense for 2024 with Freeze taking a bigger role in Tiger play calling. The results are in, and Auburn is now averaging 16 points per game against Power Four Schools this regular season with Texas A&M and Alabama still looming on the schedule. Defensively, Freeze hit a home run hiring DJ Durkin backed by veteran Charles Kelly to coordinate a defense which has kept Auburn in almost every game this bitter 3-6 season. The Tigers have stunk it up several times in 2024 offensively, despite a returning veteran QB starter, a stable of accomplished running backs and far more talented weapons on the outside like true freshman Cam Coleman. But Auburn offensively hit rock bottom this past Saturday scoring one touchdown against a salty 6-3 Vandy team that previously gave up 13 to Kentucky, 14 to Ball State and 36 to powerhouse Georgia State the third Saturday of this season.
Quite frankly, in year two of Hugh Freeze, Auburn football is in almost uncharted territory. In the 1976 and 1977 seasons, Doug Barfield was 8-14 overall with a 6-6 conference record. Pat Dye went 14-9 in his first two seasons and 6-6 in the SEC. Things got exciting with Terry Bowden in 1993/1994 with a 20-1-1 overall record while being 14-1-1 in conference play. Tommy Tuberville went 14-10 in his first two seasons with a .500 record in the SEC at 8-8. Gene Chizik returned to Auburn in 2009 going 22-5 in his first two seasons, 11-5 in the SEC and won a National Championship in year two 2010. Gus Malzahn had a first two-year record at 20-7and 11-5 with conference play and Bryan Harsin failed at 9-12 overall, 4-9 in conference play while being fired before the end of his second season. Currently, Hugh Freeze is 9-13 overall and 4-10 in conference games with 3 games left in his second year. No one has been that bad in my lifetime their first two years record wise (not named Bryan Harsin) than Hugh Freeze.
For the record, Auburn cannot afford to fire Hugh Freeze nor should they. But would it be outrageous for The Auburn Athletic Department to demand change offensively on his staff or in his program? Whatever Auburn is trying to do right now is not working offensively. Although recruiting has been rock solid and hopefully remains so, is it really a guarantee to future offensive success? Naturally more talented players should generate more points, but Auburn has been as talented as every team it played on Gameday or more so except at Georgia. Despite holes in a depleted inherited roster, it is not even debatable that Auburn does not have enough talent to win games outside of against Georgia so far this season. There is plenty of talent to do more than compete against Arkansas, California, and Vanderbilt but a massive disconnect offensively has kept Auburn from not just competing better but winning against those programs.
Hugh Freeze needs time to build Auburn back, and most rationale fans get that. But fans are not the only folks associated with the program that need to take an evaluated look in the mirror. Perhaps it is time for Coach Freeze to truly embrace the CEO method of leadership, make tough decisions for the betterment of the program, and approach his baby, the offense, the same way he approached DJ Durkin’s baby, the defense. In 2003, Tommy Tuberville saw a new coordinator struggling, hired a consultant mid-season, and salvaged a disappointing season with a big Iron Bowl win against Alabama. At the end of the season, he led a nationwide search and brought the best possible coordinator and fit to the Plains with Al Borges. The rest is history. Can Hugh Freeze swallow the ego, lick the toad, see the truth, and take a step into a more CEO-like position trusting a new, younger offensive mind like he once was to radically change Auburn football under his watch for the better? For his sake, Auburn fans hope so; for if not, the rest will be history for this regime, one way or another, as well.