Auburn football's Hugh Freeze owns up to 'awful' offensive showing, talks what must change

AUBURN — For the first time in a long time, Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze isn't calling offensive plays.

We knew that already. Freeze assigned those duties in the offseason to offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery.

But that doesn't mean Freeze won't step in to call a play or two from time to time, and that happened on three occasions in Auburn's 14-10 win over Cal on Saturday.

One of those instances, which came late in the fourth quarter with the Tigers down by three points, was a 5-yard fade in the corner of the end zone from transfer quarterback Payton Thorne to tight end Rivaldo Fairweather. Fairweather hauled in the pass to score his first touchdown in an Auburn uniform.

"We actually were leaving the huddle and were going to go 12 personnel and go into block it up," Freeze said after the game. "And I just said, 'Nah, I want to go 13 and give Rivaldo a chance here.' ... I had just seen Rivaldo do that too many times in practice.

"The last thing was I told Payton (was), 'Just make sure it's catchable, and he'll make a play.' And he did."

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It was one of the only things that worked for Auburn's offense against the Golden Bears. The Tigers finished with 94 passing yards, four turnovers and lost the time-of-possession battle, 34:48-25:12. Their 3.6 yards per rush left much to be desired, too.

"Offense was awful," Freeze said Monday. " ... I do believe we had a really good plan offensively, particularly in the second half. And I think we would have scored points had we not turned it over two more times. ... You can't win football games turning the ball over. I thought we were ripping off some pretty good runs and either had a penalty or a turnover for those few possessions that we had in the second half."

Freeze, who wasn't satisfied with how his quarterbacks − Thorne and Robby Ashford − were rotated, has some ideas to get the offense humming. Among those include more touches for Ja'Varrius Johnson and Jay Fair. Fair scored his second touchdown of the season against Cal, a 13-yard catch-and-run over the middle.

Fair is Auburn's leading receiver through two games with 81 yards on seven catches. Johnson has five receptions for 51 yards.

The only issue is, given similar their sizes, they often play the same position.

"Those two guys are our best receivers," Freeze said. "Now, I wish they were bigger because the catch radius is not big − and we've got to improve the others − but those guys are pretty good in space. We've got to use those guys more.

"Rivaldo needs to be utilized, and he was well in the second half. But we've got to play to our strengths and figure out how to make it look different every week."

Freeze's ideas will remain just that for now − suggestions for Montgomery to think about when combing through his play sheet on game day.

But Freeze does hope to be more involved moving forward.

"Those are some of the things I challenged (the coaches) with this morning, was how are you going to (play to our strengths)?" Freeze said. "And if you need help, I swear I can help. I'll draw them up and show you how to make them look different.

"But they have the ability to do that. ... We're not overreacting to anything. I have great trust in (Montgomery) and we're going to work together this week on the game plan. He doesn't have an ego; he doesn't care if I step in and call it. I need to probably be in more meetings. ... Again, Philip is going to be fine. We're going to work together this week and see if we can get a great plan in place to not repeat last week's performance."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football: What Tigers must change after 'awful' offensive game