Will Hugh Freeze call plays this season for Auburn? 'I'm going to call a share of them'
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Hugh Freeze was brought into Auburn to do a number of things. One being revitalize one of the more stagnant offenses in the SEC over the last few seasons.
Following his hiring in November, Freeze put together a solid staff including new offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery. Montgomery, formerly Tulsa's head coach up until this season, is well known for calling the shots for the Baylor Bears during their offensive heyday from 2008-2014.
Because of Auburn's recent track record with head coaches calling (or not) offensive plays for the team, both the media and fans alike are curious about Freeze's approach to play-calling for this season. After all, Freeze has primarily called plays for his offenses for the majority of his career. Will he give the reigns completely over to Montgomery this year?
Freeze was asked about it during Thursday's national signing day press conference.
"I think there's a point in time where your whole concern is just what is best for whatever program you're leading," Freeze said. "There's so many dynamics to running a program at this level today that are maybe a little bit new and different and I'm very convinced that the culture and the locker room for teams that have talent will - if the culture is right - it's going to pay dividends [...] I think there is an enormous amount of time that I can put into that to help us."
While Freeze may have to focus his attention elsewhere, he still has a lot of trust in his guys - Montgomery was a phenomenal play-caller at Baylor and should fit well in Freeze's system.
"Its like I've told everyone in the room, with Philip (Montgomery) and Kent (Austin) and the other guys that have helped me in the past," Freeze said. "I'm still going to call a share of (the plays) depending on what that looks like - probably more in the warp tempo world."
Freeze may take action when it comes to how Auburn's offense operates with tempo, but he has confidence that not only will Montgomery command the rest of the scheme well, but that the entire staff he's put together will help focus on such in case Freeze needs to manage other parts of the program.
Once again, he notes that because of how college football has changed, his role as a head coach has also shifted into other areas both on and off the field.
"We really don't know exactly what that looks like, but I know that I have great confidence in Philip as a playcaller," Freeze said. "And I have great confidence in he and Kent and Jake (Thornton) and Ben (Aigamaua) and Cadillac (Williams) and Marcus (Davis) and those guys that we've brought on to help formulate a gameplan, should I need to be elsewhere making sure that our program is right. It's really just the total landscape of college football and running a program. If I really do what I've done in the past and spend all of my time game-planning, preparing to call a game only, I'm not sure that's best for Auburn."
Auburn starts spring practice on February 27th and will host its annual "A-Day" spring game April 8th.
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