Auburn’s head coach Hugh Freeze will take over playcalling duties on offense in 2024, sources advised ESPN.
Freeze referred to as his personal performs throughout his first three head-coaching stops at Arkansas State, Ole Miss and Liberty and is broadly thought-about one of many high playcallers in faculty soccer. However with Freeze in his first 12 months as Auburn’s head coach this previous season, he employed offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery to be the first playcaller. Auburn struggled offensively and completed eleventh within the SEC in scoring offense (26.2 factors per sport) and was held to twenty or fewer factors in six video games.
Freeze introduced Friday that he had fired Montgomery after only one season. Montgomery had been Tulsa’s head coach for eight seasons, however the Tigers ranked 121st out of 130 FBS offenses in passing offense (162.2 yards per sport) whereas ending 6-7, together with a 31-13 loss to Maryland within the TransPerfect Music Metropolis Bowl.
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Freeze thought-about a number of completely different choices by way of who would run the offense subsequent season, and though it is extra demanding than ever on this period of faculty soccer for a head coach to name his personal performs, Freeze determined it was the perfect transfer for this system, in line with sources. There have been occasions final season that Freeze mentioned he was extra concerned in calling performs, however Montgomery was the first playcaller.
When Freeze was out of teaching following his firing from Ole Miss, he talked to Nick Saban concerning the Alabama offensive coordinator job, however there was strain from the SEC workplace that no SEC faculty rent Freeze till Ole Miss was off NCAA probation. Gus Malzahn was additionally excited about bringing Freeze in as Auburn’s offensive coordinator previous to Freeze touchdown the Liberty job.
Freeze’s Ole Miss offenses averaged greater than 32 factors per sport every of his final two seasons in Oxford. His 2020 and 2021 offenses at Liberty each completed within the high 25 nationally in scoring.
With Freeze taking up playcalling, the plan now’s to maneuver Kent Austin to quarterbacks coach after he served in a top quality management position at Auburn in 2023 and particular assistant to the pinnacle coach. Austin, a former Ole Miss quarterback, was with Freeze at Liberty as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Austin beforehand labored within the CFL as a head coach and common supervisor and was additionally the Cornell head coach from 2010 to ’12.