In today's edition of Auburn Tigers News, Derrick Nix explains his expectations for the offense and Hugh Freeze reacts to last year's infamous Iron Bowl loss
Last year, Auburn football's offensive gameplanning was messy. Former offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery and head coach Hugh Freeze were hardly ever on the same page, and they ran into many problems throughout the season. In new OC Derrick Nix, Freeze is bringing on someone who he communicates well with and has worked with previously.
Nix has high expectations for this year's offense, which is expected to look completely different with revamped position groups like the offensive line and wide receivers. But the bottom line is that Nix is setting a new standard for the Auburn football off
"Being a fundamentally-efficient scoring machine, it requires us to make explosive plays," Nix said Thursday, per The Montgomery Advertiser. "It becomes a standard, and expectation. We just try to challenge our guys to expect it. If our offensive line can protect (and) the quarterback makes the right read against the right coverage, you should make the play and it should be explosive. We should be able to count on that, week in and week out. That is something that we talk about and something that’s expected and needed for this offense to thrive."
Hugh Freeze reacts to last year's infamous Iron Bowl loss
Auburn football's 2023 season ended in multiple disasters, but arguably the most painful one was the last minute loss in the Iron Bowl. With less than a minute left to play, the Tigers were up by four points, and Alabama found themselves on fourth down with 31 yards to reach the end zone.
Quarterback Jalen Milroe completed a touchdown pass to Isaiah Bond in the corner of the endzone, and it was over for Auburn football. Even now, the loss stings for head coach Hugh Freeze.
“Not winning that game sucked,” Freeze said in an interview with ESPN’s Marty Smith and Ryan McGee, per AL.com. “It stunk. It was disappointing. Hard. We’ve gotta coach better. If you’re not accountable through the week on little things, it’ll show up on third down, it’ll show up on fourth down. And so some of that fault is the culture, some of it is coaching. Maybe we didn’t coach it good enough.”