Heading into his third season on the Plains, Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze knows the pressure is on. After bringing in two back-to-back top 10 recruiting classes but producing two mediocre records, something has got to change in year three.
However, Freeze recently shared some information about the Tigers' play-calling plans for the 2025 season, and many were less than impressed. Rather than having one person in charge, several staffers, including quarterbacks coach Kent Austin and offensive coordinator Derrick Nix, will contribute to the decision-making process.
Having multiple people "in charge" doesn't sound too appealing to many people, and one USA Today writer even went so far as to say Freeze deserved to be fired for the approach. But Freeze defended his system to the media earlier this week, saying that most coaching staffs use collaboration and that Freeze himself will still be heavily involved.
"Derrick Nix is the offensive coordinator, and he does all the planning and scripting and is in charge of the game plan," Freeze said, per Auburn Undercover. "But, man, there's no staff where there's not a collaboration on the plan. Offensively or defensively, I reserve the right to say on the call sheet, 'Yeah, I don't really like that one right here.' But he does a great job for us.
"Kent (Austin) kind of leads the third-down plan. But other than that, Nix leads the charge and has the play calling duties, with me reserving the right to say. I'll go over when we're on defense to do head-coaching duties and do the same thing there. I don't tell DJ a whole lot, but there's times I can see what I think offenses are doing. And I'll say, 'Hey, I think we need to cloud this.'
"That's the way it'll be this year. And while I'm doing that, the offensive guys are talking about the next series. Usually there's a darn 'TV timeout, so I have time to get back and say 'Hey, what are y'all thinking?'"
The Tigers return to action on August 29 in Waco, Texas, against Baylor.