Auburn did not look good during Saturday’s home loss to Cal and Hugh Freeze is refusing to take responsibility. The second-year head coach threw his college football players directly in front of a bus while discussing the frustrating home defeat.
He admitted that one, singular offensive play could’ve been better. That was it!
The Tigers ran 57 plays against the Golden Bears. Quarterback Payton Thorne attempted 27 passes with just 14 completions to eight different receivers. He and Jarquez Hunter also ran the ball 27 times. They made up the vast majority of an offense that totaled only 286 yards— 165 through the air and 121 on the ground.
As if those numbers aren’t rough enough, Thorne threw four interceptions. Auburn was 50% on 10 third down attempts and 0/1 on fourth down. It also lost a fumble and accrued six penalties.
To be fair to Freeze, Thorne’s decision-making was objectively terrible. However, the collective “we” have known that he is not very good since his time at Michigan State. We also saw him play poorly last season.
Freeze was the one who decided to stick with Thorne. He chose not to go hard after a quarterback in the transfer portal. He decided to start him over guys like Hank Brown, Holden Geriner or true freshman Walker White.
If the quarterback does not play well, that falls on the head coach for:
- Starting him in the first place
- Not having him ready to play
Hugh Freeze refuses to take responsibility.
This is a common theme throughout the 54-year-old’s career. Failures are rarely never his fault.
In Freeze’s mind, he called a great game. The players let him down. It was their fault that the Tigers lost to Bears, not his own.
He dumped all of the blame — except for one single play — on everyone else but himself.
You know who else was betrayed by the people closest to him? Jesus Christ. I’m just saying…
Be sure to pray for Coach Freeze. Maybe one day he will have competent players who are capable of executing his perfect (except for one play) game plan. God willing.
In the meantime, Freeze is going to dumb down the offensive playbook. His players were unable to handle his brilliant and complicated offense so he will make sure their inept brains can understand.
I can promise you the package will not be big.
— Hugh Freeze
It’s probably not the first time he has said those words in that order!
Anyway…
Auburn hosts New Mexico on Saturday in a game it cannot lose. Freeze described his next opponent as “scary” and will need to “get [his team] ready, for sure.”
Although the Lobos are led by a really athletic quarterback in Devon Dampier, they lost by four to an FCS school and lost by 22 to the No. 21 Arizona Wildcats. The Tigers should not have any issue getting the win. It would be another embarrassing performance if they do.