Hugh Freeze admits Auburn Tigers biggest problem, but won’t address one thing fans are most concerned with ahead of Georgia
The Auburn offense is broken, but Hugh Freeze won’t talk about replacing Jackson Arnold
The Auburn offense looks completely broken as the Tigers head into a bye and prepare to face the Georgia Bulldogs. Hugh Freeze tried to take ownership for as many of the failures as he and the staff could when he met with SEC media this week, but the issues are painfully obvious.
The good news is that he did at least admit the offensive line has been struggling immensely–which has been a major problem. However, he would not truly address the question of whether he’d consider replacing Jackson Arnold, despite his admission of the offense’s complete and utter failure against both Oklahoma and Texas A&M.
Key Facts on Auburn Tigers Offensive Issues
- Quarterback Jackson Arnold has already taken 21 sacks through five games.
- Arnold is taking a sack on 35% of his pressures (more than double the FBS average).
- Auburn currently ranks 110th among FBS teams in third down conversion rate.
- The Auburn offense is averaging just 3.7 yards per play over their last two games. The worst FBS offense in the country (UMass) is averaging 3.88 yards per play on the season.
Hugh Freeze admits the obvious offensive line and success issues
Given how horrendously Auburn’s offense has played over the last two weeks against both Oklahoma and Texas A&M it’s no wonder all of the questions this week for Hugh Freeze were on that side of the ball. When asked specifically about how he could fix the offensive line this is what he had to say:
“That’s probably the best question anyone could ask today, and it’s the one that is on our mind constantly in this building. From an offensive standpoint, the first three games, [our offensive line] played at a really high level and did an excellent job at Baylor. Then they protected us pretty clean in the next two games. And then we have to go on the road into two very difficult environments against two really good defenses. And we, time and time again, put ourselves behind the chains with undisciplined penalties. There’s going to be some holds. We had our share of those to0. Then when you get in third and long, the ability to strain–and I think we can strain harder–is a very difficult ask against those types of pass rushers.”
He continued on in defense of what his team had done prior to the Oklahoma and Texas A&M games, but that doesn’t matter. Auburn is measured by what they do against the best teams in the SEC and the offensive line hasn’t been good enough. However, the only player who’s been worse than anyone along the offensive line for Auburn is Jackson Arnold. That’s likely the biggest issue. He’s taking sacks twice as often as he should (given his pressure to sack rate of 35%) and failing to make virtually any plays in critical moments leading to Auburn’s 110th ranked 3rd down conversion rate among FBS teams.
Hugh Freeze dodges question on replacing Jackson Arnold
The obvious question that fans and media have been wondering this week is, “Is it time to consider moving on from Jackson Arnold?” Coach Freeze mentioned in the postgame following the 16-10 loss to Texas A&M that he was “re-evaluating everything” including personnel decisions in the bye week, so this begged the question. Is quarterback a spot where he’s considered a replacement too? When asked that directly, Freeze avoided answering that and tried to make Auburn’s failings about the team:
“The biggest issues are us getting behind the chains. The [Texas] A&M game, the Oklahoma game, we had some positive things happen. We missed plays too, and obviously the sacks, but we did some good things. The A&M game, there’s very, very few good things that you can say. There’s no way to sugarcoat it, and so you have to reevaluate everything, starting with us as coaches. And I don’t put it on Jackson [Arnold] by himself. There were routes that are two yards too deep–that causes an incompletion. Then there’s us as coaches that, when that happens, we try to overcome it. Maybe with a call that is not probably as good as another. That might get us into third and manageable, where we don’t have to have a deep drop back type play, if that makes sense…There was a ton of third and 10 pluses. That’s hard. That’s a hard ask. There are some throws that need to come out of our hands still that I’ve got to continue [addressing] with the quarterback staff to help Jackson with making. And then there’s a lot of calls that I think we need to reevaluate as coaches, to put us in a better position to try to have conversions.”
If you made it through that entire quote, congratulations. It was a tough listen live, and even more difficult to read through all the loops coach Freeze jumped through to avoid throwing his quarterback under the bus completely. Freeze could have just said no, but instead ignored the question entirely and deflected. What does that mean? There could actually be a quarterback change brewing.
Yes, there are other problems. The run game did stall some the last two games. The offensive line play has been rather awful in SEC play. Those are valid points. However, at this point, we’ve seen a large sample both at Oklahoma and Auburn, of Jackson Arnold struggling immensely with the same things over and over again.
Arnold might get the nod against Georgia, and perhaps one more shot after that, but Auburn fans deserve better than this mess. 3.7 yards play the last two weeks. 13.5 points per game scored in that span. 15 sacks taken in SEC play alone so far. Zero third down conversions against the Aggies. This is indefensible, unwatchable, nonsensical football play. Hugh Freeze needs to unlock something in Arnold quickly, otherwise things are about to go sideways.
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