Auburn football wrapped up its second spring of the Hugh Freeze-tenure Saturday afternoon from Jordan-Hare Stadium with Auburn’s A-Day spring game.
In front of a reported 33,526 fans, Auburn’s offense came from behind to beat Auburn’s defense 28-27.
Here’s everything Freeze said following Saturday’s action.
Opening statement: “From the start of the day, No. 1 thankful for the weather. Last year’s weather made for a difficult day for all of us, I think. It was such a beautiful day for A-Day. Just to stand at the end of the Tiger Walk and welcome all our newcomers and our returnees to Jordan-Hare, which it has got to be special when you walk into this stadium.
To see all our cheerleaders, our band and fans to show up for a spring game today just tells you again about the Auburn spirit and the Auburn family, who they really are.
Lot of great recruits here, so all of that was good last night and this morning. And we’ll visit them them some more this afternoon.
I still thought we were lacking a little energy and pizzazz offensively to start. We’ve got to change that mentality when we come in this stadium. But there was a lot of good things that happened. It was good for our defense to play really well. I think they stopped the run extremely well.
To see us make some explosive plays in the passing game was really good. Robert (Lewis) and Cam (Coleman) and others that got some of those opportunities.
All in all, loved what it came down to. I don’t praise the specialists enough. In our punt period today, I thought Oscar was phenomenal and his hang time and directional kicks, and our long snapper Reed Hughes has been very, very solid.
And then if you get into a field goal kicking contest like today, I think we’ve got a pretty good chance if it goes kicker-on-kicker, because we’ve got two of the best.
How about our freshman, Towns, just acting like it was kind of a normal thing. Had zero issues with any nervous or timing. Seemed very, very calm and didn’t get sped up in his motions. Then the kick, I think it would have been good from 65. It hit way up on the upright.
I’m pleased, pleased with the crowd, and I just love our fans. I know we’ve got a long way to go and a lot to clean up. And we certainly can’t come into this stadium flat like I kind of felt like we did at first.
But I’m pleased with the spring. I thought our coaches, I give them a lot of credit. I thought they really prepared hard for every single practice. We got the most out of every single minute that we were allowed to be with our kids in the spring.”
On the value of having an efficient special teams unit: “It gives us great confidence. Points are important any time you can get them. Alex (McPherson) has already proven he can get the job done and he’s been injured all spring, so that was a great opportunity for Towns (McGough) to step in and show us what he could do. We’re really, really confident in both of them standing here today.
Obviously Oscar’s (Chapman) been very solid punting, too. We’re going to be a really solid special teams unit based on what we’ve seen this spring.”
On Auburn freshman wide receiver Cam Coleman: ”I think he changes us. We need more. Just anxious to get the other signees here like Perry (Thompson) and Malcolm (Simmons) to join with that group. But I am glad our fans got to see that. I’m quite sure that they were very excited to see that.
He just tracks the ball and thinks every ball is catchable. I know he made a couple of great ones, but there’s one he didn’t that I honestly thought might have been his best effort of the day.”
More on Auburn freshman wide receiver Cam Coleman: “I know he made a couple great ones, but there’s one he didn’t that I honestly thought might’ve been his best effort of the day. It was kind of like — I don’t know how to describe it. Around the back. He had that for a second. I’m not sure it wasn’t interference, but they didn’t call many of those today. He just tracks the ball really naturally. He’s so teachable, coachable. He made a couple (missed assignments) in the tight red zone today on balls that we were hoping to throw him down there. Kind of got us in trouble and made us kick some field goals. That’s on us. We’ve got to clean it up and make sure he knows the whole system and what he can do. But when he knows what to do, he’s really, really talented.”
On if Auburn’s passing game has improved: “Yeah. Absolutely. I think the more talented receivers we get, the better our passing game is going to be. We’ll make sure our quarterbacks understand. We made a couple of mistakes there today. We threw a few slants behind people. But I’m confident we can move the football if we continue to add pieces to the talent of the roster. I think we’ve done that some. We need to continue to do that.”
On using inner-helmet communication: “We toyed with it the last two Saturdays and used it. It doesn’t change the game at all for those that choose to be no huddle, truthfully. If you’re going with any tempo. If you want to wait and communicate with the quarterback to the 15-second mark, there’s some things that can probably help with. And certainly it helps if you get in the huddle and you don’t have to signal anything anymore. I suspect that it’s going to make us and others do all of the above. Have our normal operation, go in some, ‘Hey, let’s get to the line, but let’s talk through this a little bit’ and get in the huddle some. I think it will cause all of us to do some of that.”
On the play of the defensive line: “Really well. I haven’t watched the film, obviously, but I felt like they won the line of scrimmage. That’s very positive. I like the guys and the effort they’re giving over there, I do. I just don’t think you can ever have enough of them. We’ve got a couple spots left on our roster. If you’re going to fill it, let’s fill it with D-line and receivers. I think that’s where we need to add some more depth. It did seem that they played well today. We need those young kids like DJ Reed and Bobby (Jamison-Travis) to come on. I thought DJ made a couple plays in the backfield. TJ Lindsey showed up. Obviously, the two young ends are going to be very talented. I was excited, but I thought the D-line kind of dominated the line of scrimmage today.”
On recruiting inside the state of Alabama, specifically in east Alabama: “You start at home with recruiting. You can’t fill the whole roster with just from Alabama, but we want to win our battles here. We’ve said that since we came. In the 2024 cycle, that we had a full year to recruit kids, we won our fair share of battles in this state. It’s good to see them have success, and hopefully we can carry that through to ‘25 and ‘26 also.”
On the defense’s performance in totality: ”I adjusted the starting field position some. You didn’t have to get a whole lot to get a field-goal attempt, and that’s probably what I meant by that. The fourth quarter, we started everything back at the 30 or 25. So the points that were earned in that quarter were earned. They probably deserved to win the day, but it was good to see it come down to a pressure kick like that and make us execute.”
On what Georgia State transfer wide receiver Robert Lewis brings to the offense: ”Maturity, you said it. Veteran maturity, and has played a lot of snaps. Really good route-runner. I think his hands are really good also, so it was good to see him have some nice catches today. He’s done that all spring. He’s going to be a valuable, valuable part to that room, for sure.”
On the showing of Auburn’s quarterbacks: “I think we got better this spring of understanding kind of what the expectations are from that position in running our offense. Honestly, I felt like standing back there today that most of the decisions were correct. Now, I didn’t always like some of the throws that were made. But I did think in the run, RPO game that most of the decisions were correct. I’ll have to watch the film and see. I know that we improved our knowledge and us being on the same page in terms of what our expectations are in this offseason for our quarterbacks.”
On the familiar offensive terminology: ”It’s 100 percent back to what I’ve always called from my high-school days. Truthfully, I haven’t changed much. So we went back, starting in January, went back to our old terminology in the way we call things. Bringing (Derrick) Nix in to be the coordinator, he had done that five years with me, so it wasn’t foreign to him. And Kent (Austin) as a quarterback coach has been with me for a long time, too. Ben (Aigamaua) also. Maurice Harris is back in that room also. Everybody’s been familiar with it except for Jake (Thornton), which it’s really easy for him. It’s still very similar in the run game. The pass game is a little different verbiage. I’m more comfortable, for sure.”