After losing its first two conference games on the road to what are now two top-10 ranked opponents, Auburn is gearing up for what head coach Hugh Freeze refers to as “Season two” with everything still in front of it.
“I break the season down into those bye weeks, season one, season two and season three. Everything is still in front of us, and it starts with an incredible rivalry game that you ought to relish the opportunity to play in,” Freeze said. “To get to do it at home, which I think we’ve won four straight at home now, hopefully that gives us an advantage."
The much-needed week off provided Freeze with an opportunity to, of course, get a head start on Georgia, but to also sit back and reflect on what his team has done throughout the first five games.
Obviously, Auburn’s offense has left much to be desired since the start of conference play. Freeze said he was able to get into some offensive meeting rooms alone and with his staff. No one inside the walls of the Auburn football facility is happy about what’s been put on display offensively, and there’s a slew of miscues the Tigers need to get cleaned up before hosting No. 10 Georgia on Saturday.
Freeze continued to reiterate that staying ahead of the chains and staying in third-and-manageable situations is essential for Auburn moving forward.
“It starts with me and with our staff having us adequately prepared to not be behind the chains the whole night. We've done a really good job of taking care of the football. You look at the last two games, and we certainly have put ourselves behind the chains way too much with some undisciplined penalties and questionable play calling that puts us behind the chains. We obviously either didn't coach it well enough to execute, or were just not good schematic plays. So we've studied it all,” Freeze said.
Freeze said there wasn’t a lot of off time for the staff or players last week, as compared to how he previously ran his bye week schedule. As a result, the Tigers were able to evaluate and discover a few problems that may be holding them back.
Freeze said that they did some testing on left tackle Xavier Chaplin’s hearing and discovered that the 6-foot-7, 348-pounder is having trouble with the cadence in hostile environments.
“We've done some testing on his hearing, and there's an issue there. And that goes back to us,” Freeze said. “Should have handled the cadence stuff differently for him. But he really struggles to hear in those environments. And we’ll make adjustments for that.”
Freeze also said that part of the Tigers' offensive woes lies within the hands of quarterback Jackson Arnold. Through five games, Arnold has not turned the ball over once, and that’s certainly a bright spot to look at. However, Freeze says that could be hindering the offense from converting on explosive plays, due to his perceived risk-aversion.
“You want to take care of the football first and foremost, and him doing that as poorly as we’ve played still kept us in a game and gave us a chance to win, so there’s a lot of positives from that. But certainly don’t want him to play out of any fear. Hopefully, after our meetings throughout last week and through the game planning this week, maybe he’ll be a little more freer to give our kids a chance,” Freeze said.
Needless to say, after a week of self-scouting and evaluation, Freeze and Auburn believe that the Tigers can still accomplish everything they had their minds set on before the season began. Auburn is in the midst of four consecutive games against teams currently ranked in the top 15 of the AP poll.
That’s just life in the SEC.
But the stakes surrounding Saturday’s game for the Tigers may bring a little bit more juice. Of course, the Tigers will treat it like any other game, but it’s the first time Auburn and Georgia have played under the lights in Jordan-Hare Stadium since 2012, and Auburn is searching for its first win against the Bulldogs since 2017.
“I know our people will be a factor in this game, and that will be nice as we have not experienced that the last couple of weeks,” Freeze said. “Yes, there’s always a sense of urgency because it’s the next SEC game, but you can’t run from the fact that this rivalry game means something to a lot of people.”
Kickoff on Saturday is set for 6:30 p.m. on ABC.
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