Comments made by Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze ahead of the Music City Bowl may have indicated that changes were coming
No matter how you look at it, the Auburn football team had a dismal performance in the Music City Bowl. The season ended on a low note, from the New Mexico State and Iron Bowl losses to the disaster in Nashville at the end of December.
Since that game, the Auburn football program has parted ways offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery, defensive coordinator Ron Roberts, associate head coach and running backs coach Cadillac Williams, and defensive backs coach Zac Etheridge.
While the firing of Montgomery was expected, some were surprised to see Roberts go to Florida and nearly everyone was shocked by the resignations of Caddy and Etheridge. However, statements made by head coach Hugh Freeze ahead of the Tigers' bowl game, via Auburn Undercover, were likely indicative that changes were on the way for the Auburn football program:
“Continuity is invaluable,” Freeze said before Auburn played in the Music City Bowl last month. “Driving the same culture, the same voice from the staff rooms to the position rooms, and hopefully from the position rooms to the locker rooms is when you get to be a special team. It starts with the staff believing the same things and saying the same things and not wavering from those.”
Of course, continuity is something that has been majorly lacking for the Auburn football program over the past several years. It will be the fifth season in a row for the Tigers with new coordinators, and the seventh straight season with a new OC. Later that day, Freeze's foreshadowing comments intensified:
"I don't know that I ever feel like I took over a program and I got every single hire in the whole building right the first time," Freeze said. "Because you're just so crazy with recruiting. So I think there's always the evaluation from our chair of can we improve ourselves some way."
For the Auburn football program to be successful on the level that we all want, we have to let the head coach make decisions that are best for his team. Sometimes it means saying see you later to Auburn legends, and that's okay—they will go on to grow their careers and find success. The bottom line is that the football program is getting better.