Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze bearish on college football rule changes
Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze does not sound excited about the proposed rule changes for college football aimed at speeding up the games and eliminating downtime to improve the viewer experience. Among the most prominent changes pitched is keeping the clock running after first downs unless it is within the final two minutes of the first half.
“I honestly don’t know,” Freeze said during a March 13 press conference. “We have such a great product, you know? When I’m sitting in those meetings and I don’t have much of a voice, I’ve—I’ve just said our game is…as exciting as any sport that is out there. I just hate to see us tinker with too many rules.”
To Freeze, the viewer experience should be tailored to the fans in the stadium, not those channel surfing on their couches at home. “The people sitting on their couches and that choose to do that, great, I’m glad they’re tuning in; we need that,” he said. “But the ones that can get up and go get a beverage and another piece of sausage and cheese plate in their kitchen and come back during the commercial, we’re all sitting in there waiting for — so I never understood why we don’t just try to, on the front end, maybe adopt what every other sport is doing now, which is picture-in-picture and let’s just keep playing…. So, I don’t have an opinion yet, but I will after the season, I’m sure.”
How Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze’s opinion differs from Nick Saban’s
Nick Saban has previously commented on the rule changes, and the Alabama head coach has revealed that he is for some proposed rule changes, though he does oppose others.
“I’m kind of for the first down thing, but I’m an old NFL guy,” he told Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger.
Saban isn’t sold on the clock continuing after incomplete passes, though. “I’m not quite as in favor of the incomplete pass,” he said. “You throw a pass 50 yards down the field, it takes people time to get back, and now the clock is running?”