Hugh Freeze press conference review: LSU week

“We are trying hard to build upon that. I thought he made some really good throws. When you are playing in this league the DBs are in position. You do not find many where you are running wide open. You’ll have a few of those from time to time in blown coverages, but there are going to be some contested catches. There were nine incompletions and I think six of them could have gone either way. I am certainly not saying they were total drops, but there are chances for us to make plays to put us in the position to get points or convert the chains to keep our defense off the field. We are going to have to start making our share of those. The balls were in the right spot, some were really good throws. I think there is something to build upon there. I wish you could see the film. We had Rivaldo (Fairweather) wide open for a touchdown if we had set the protection right.”

”We’re excited to get back to work after an open week, excited to see our kids this afternoon and get the week started off right preparing to go to Baton Rouge to play a very difficult opponent. I think their offense is the most explosive that I’ve seen in a long, long time. I wasn’t coaching when they had their run with Joe Burrow and them, but this quarterback, if he’s not in the Heisman discussion, there’s a problem. He’s playing at an incredibly high level with dynamic receivers, and there’s not a weakness on that offense. It’s impressive to watch. So, it’s going to be a great challenge for our kids and a great college environment. I’m excited as heck about it, and I know our kids will be, hopefully. I haven’t seen them yet. Hopefully, we can get healthy and go to Baton Rouge and compete against a really, really, really good football program.”

“Of course, (Austin) Keys and Keionte (Scott) are still out for the foreseeable future. Mosiah (Nasili-Kite), unfortunately, is done for the year, which is a blow to us defensively for sure. Jaylin Simpson I think will go. He’s day-to-day and said he’s feeling better each day, so I’m hopeful and expecting that he will go. Doubtful on Damari (Alston), and Malcolm Johnson is a day-to-day guy too. Of the guys we have remaining … (Ja’Varrius Johnson) is questionable also. He’s having an issue with his elbow that he just can’t get straight. So, that’s where we are. It’s the next man up, and we’ve got to get some of these younger kids to play more consistently. We worked on that hard last week in the open week. They got a ton of reps, because we’re going to need them before this season is over, with the remaining seven games we have.”

“No philosophy change, other than making sure we are running the right RPOs with the runs and doing more of that. You do all the scouting and finding what your tendencies are and to make sure you have those posted with your game plan this week. If all we have done when we motion the tight end with the ball is XYZ, then we probably shouldn’t do XYZ this week. We did all that self-scouting, and then trying to make sure our identity in our passing game matches our personnel and whatever we feel strongly about in that, make sure we do it over and over and over and over again until we are really, really confident and really, really good at that. That was pretty much the focus offensively. If you go to the Georgia game, there are really 10 plays that made a difference in that game. We easily could have found ourselves on the other side of that outcome and from those 10 plays, six of them were on us coaches. Obviously there were more than 10 that did not go exactly right but you could take 10 situations where if you do not get our protection set right, that’s our fault. That’s not easy for me to take, to say, or to live with. We have got to get that fixed. There are things our kids could have done differently, too. We had two balls in our hands inside the 5-yard line on two passes, if we could just make one of those plays, you know. I am not counting those as one of the 10. I am talking about 10 fundamental things we could have done differently, offensively or defensively, in a critical situation, if we execute that properly they make a direct impact on that game because they were all in the critical downs and critical moments. That’s encouraging we played a team of that caliber and came close, and we wanted to build upon the good things, because there were good things. The margin of error for us between winning and losing is small against teams that have a better roster in some spots, that we cannot afford those. We have to look at everybody: coaches, players. Why are we not getting that executed? If we cannot do it personnel-wise, get it out of the plan. If we can do it but are not doing it right, then we need to coach it better. That’s what the whole week was about is how do we not go to bed after a game feeling that way.”

“We are trying hard to build upon that. I thought he made some really good throws. When you are playing in this league the DBs are in position. You do not find many where you are running wide open. You’ll have a few of those from time to time in blown coverages, but there are going to be some contested catches. There were nine incompletions and I think six of them could have gone either way. I am certainly not saying they were total drops, but there are chances for us to make plays to put us in the position to get points or convert the chains to keep our defense off the field. We are going to have to start making our share of those. The balls were in the right spot, some were really good throws. I think there is something to build upon there. I wish you could see the film. We had Rivaldo (Fairweather) wide open for a touchdown if we had set the protection right.”

“They all have a shot, but they have to produce. I know that one of the things we do during the open week is we call all of our parents. I think that’s a great practice to do. You have to be prepared that you are hearing the good and the bad, but I think that’s healthy. They know we care. Any of those discussions are usually around playing time and it’s just part of it. At some point we have to have production at whatever position it is. I’m excited to see our kids compete this week and hopefully make some plays.”

“I’m probably not going to go into that. There were some definite tendencies, for sure, in five weeks of playing – certain motions or certain sets that you know where the ball is being run in those sets. Is it heavy to the tight end or away from the tight end? Those type of things you are always looking at. Are we too high of a tendency on third down in particularly where somebody can have a great plan for you? That’s probably the biggest thing you look at defensively. Every week your defensive plan is different based on what you are seeing. Third downs we usually are creatures of habit.”

“Vital. He and (Zykeivous) Walker are going to have to share more snaps. Looking back, our kids were playing hard. It makes me proud of them. Marcus Harris played his guts out, but he is having to play too many snaps. You look at Georgia over there and every time we sub there’s another six of them that come in. It shows in the fourth quarter. It truly hurt us when Jaylin Simpson went out in the fourth quarter. To that point, Bowers only had two or three catches. When Jaylin went out and we lost our best bracket guy it hurt us. That’s where we have to continue to create depth through the current young kids we have and obviously through recruiting. Marcus and some of those guys are having to play too many snaps. These young kids are going to have to give us some snaps. Somebody is going to have to give us some help in there.”

“The feedback was they love our Monday meetings. They love the teaching series I do, they love the energy that they feel, that their kids feel. They feel like they are cared for. So, I thought all of that was extremely positive, and obviously they want to see their kid get their share of playing time. I think that is a process in this world. It’s one we need to keep sight of and the changing of times. Even though everybody would like to have theirs right now, it just does not work that way typically for most. That’s a lesson for life that I think will prepare them more than if they had it their way every single time. Life is not easy, and neither is earning your time to play at this level of football. It is not easy, and it should not be easy. It takes you embracing the grind, you going to work, and you enjoying the process of becoming. I sure hope we can do a good job of getting our kids to believe that, so that they do not always in this world look for greener pastures and an easier way. I think that sets you up for failure in life.

“He and Keionte were the leaders of getting everybody on the right page back there. Not only on the right page, but also those two can cover. They have played really at a high level. Obviously losing Keionte was tough, and him going out in the fourth quarter was very difficult for us all. He has been an energy leader, fun for me to be around on the sidelines and in practice always cutting up with me. He has been a joy to coach truthfully, and has played really well.”

“I don’t want to talk about game plans, but I don’t think you can stop him. There are just too many weapons around him and he’s too good. The key to this game is ‘Can we hold the field goals?’. Truthfully. Nobody has stopped him. He plays so effortlessly, literally runs forty-yard touchdowns and it looks like he’s jogging and yet no one is catching him. His balls are so accurate to those talented receivers. I just think it’s a hard task. To this point, and I haven’t watched future opponents so nobody use it for a bulletin board material, but to this point it’s the best offensive personnel I’ve seen in this league, to this point.”

“Positive reinforcement is good. Their ability to handle the truth from a coach without it becoming, in their mind, something personal. Hear what I say, maybe not how I say it sometimes. I don’t rant and rave but I can get pretty passionate in my directional things sometimes and so can other coaches I’m sure, but just to hear the message. At the same time the message should also be heard if things were done correctly. That’s a balancing act and not the easiest thing for coaches. We’re really good at ‘Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t and why, why, why, why?’, so I think it’s a balancing act. But none of that builds confidence as much as having success on a Saturday.”

“Great place to play, SEC environment, obviously the fans are into it Saturday night there. I love hearing “Callin’ Baton Rouge” by Garth Brooks before the game, I think that’s a neat experience. I try to stay out there to hear that. I like hearing the announcer say, ‘In 15 minutes, the sun will set in the western sky, and it will be Saturday night in Baton Rouge.’ We get to go represent Auburn in that environment and it is a tough place to play, but so is Jordan-Hare and many others and that is, again, why you come to (the SEC). Quick story… Johnny Vaught, who I had great respect for, before he passed, said to me while he was laying in his bed when I visited him, ‘Coach, just so you know, you have never truly been the head coach at the University of Mississippi until you beat them Bayou Bengals in Baton Rouge and stood on the bleachers and let their fans know it.’ I know what it means to a lot of coaches to go play there, and he may have said it a little differently than I just said it right there, but this is a special place for many coaches that have it experienced it there.”

“Yeah, I heard this was a new thing, but it is actually not. We will have it as loud as we can get it on the practice field, and it will be playing “Hold That Tiger” or whatever the fight song is. We will have a couple different plans for cadence, just in case. I do remember having a fist fight with them down there when I was at Ole Miss. It was a Saturday night game and obviously very loud, and we were backed up in the student section in a critical drive and we had 3 false starts. It was so loud. So we will have a couple different plans if that is the case.”

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“I feel like we can do that fairly well. I don’t know where we stand in all that, but we are pretty efficient. I do think you need to be balanced to win big games. I think that’s been a challenge for us to this point. There’s no question that running the football helps. We got to shorten this game. The last two opponents they (LSU) played, Ole Miss decided to outscore them and Missouri – that was their philosophy also. I didn’t talk to Lane (Kiffin), but I talked to Eli (Drinkwitz). It was obvious Ole Miss felt like they could do that, and they did. Missouri was very close to doing that also, but I think their makeup is a little different offensively and I’m not sure that is the plan for us. We will see.”

“Numbers 0 (Maason Smith), 18 (Mehki Wingo), 4 (Harold Perkins Jr.) are freakish players, five-star talents and they might not be as deep as an LSU defense in the past, but they still have tremendous athletes over there. For whatever reason, they have been searching a little too the last couple weeks, but that makes it harder on us truthfully because it’s been two totally different plans against similar offenses. Ole Miss’s and Missouri’s offenses. Ole Miss may go faster and do a few more things, but they are still in similar sets, and it’s two totally different plans in those two games. And so that’s a bit of a guessing game for us on that but they have athletes over there for sure.”