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Hugh Freeze definitively addresses what went wrong on crucial 4th down play in Georgia loss

By Andrew Hughes

Hugh Freeze gave the final word on what went wrong for Auburn on their infamous fourth down play against Georgia while trailing 21-10
Hugh Freeze gave the final word on what went wrong for Auburn on their infamous fourth down play against Georgia while trailing 21-10 / Todd Kirkland/GettyImages
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Hugh Freeze finally revealed what went wrong on fourth down during Auburn's 31-13 loss to Georgia in Week 6 with the Tigers down 21-10: Payton Thorne didn't execute the play that Freeze and offensive coordinator Derrick Nix drew up for the offense.

Freeze prefaced placing the blame on Thorne by claiming he doesn't read anything on social media or in the paper about what's written about his team.

“I don’t read the media. I don’t listen. I don’t have social media anymore. I’m very transparent and will tell you exactly the truth of what happened,” Freeze said (h/t Montgomery Advertiser). “Payton thought he needed to change the alignment of the back to handle an edge guy. Some of that may have been based on him asking an offensive lineman. Again, we have to do a better job coaching. That shouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t a part of the process. If you go watch the film, if we leave our alignment like it’s supposed to be and we hand the ball off, Jarquez is running on a DB for an easy first down. I understand his thinking there, they just unfolded a linebacker on the backside, so obviously we didn’t coach it well enough for him to know he didn’t have to do that.”

Hugh Freeze finally sounds at peace with Georgia loss

Freeze tried to play word games to defend Thorne while simultaneously and subtly blaming him at first, but it appears the Tigers' head coach has finally accepted what transpired Between the Hedges on October 5.

He has to. For survival purposes.

The SEC is an even tougher conference than previously thought with Vanderbilt looking like a surprise contender and Kentucky owning a road win over Ole Miss. Missouri, Auburn's next opponent, is ranked No. 19 and owns one loss on the year. Not to mention No. 14 Texas A&M and No. 7 Alabama on the backend of the schedule.

Freeze cannot sit and sulk for too long about AU's most predictable loss of the season, even if a botched play-call was the reason the Tigers didn't have a better chance to win in their second most-heated rivalry game.

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