Auburn coach Hugh Freeze met with reporters on Friday morning to discuss the program’s preparations for the 2024 season.
Freeze was recapping the Tigers’ second week of fall camp when he was asked about the progress of Auburn’s offensive line. The second-year head coach was honest in his feelings toward the unit, which he called his “biggest worry” at this point in the offseason.
“The O-Line is probably one of the tighter groups we have. I do think we have a ways to go there,” Freeze said. “That’s probably been my biggest worry about the offense right now, believe it or not. I think our receivers are going to come on and be fine. O-Line-wise, just getting them to gel and get on the same page.
“Really happy with most of them up there but there’s a couple spots where we’ve got to bright it.”
Freeze was complimentary of sophomore center Connor Lew, but expressed some frustration with the unit as a whole not working together at a high-enough level.
“We’re not all on the same page. Connor Lew is very very sharp and he’s making the right calls, but somehow it’s not translating all the time to every position there,” Freeze added. “So we’ve still got work to do there.”
Freeze said that redshirt freshman offensive tackle Tyler Johnson, who dealt with a hamstring injury this offseason, is now healthy. Ronan Chambers, another potential option at tackle, has had a good camp after transferring to Auburn back in May, Freeze said. He also said the staff is still trying to figure out the best position for senior offensive lineman Dillon Wade.
With so many moving pieces, it seems Auburn still has plenty to sort through before the 2024 campaign begins.
On the bright side, Auburn has a relatively-weak nonconference schedule in September featuring Alabama A&M, Cal and New Mexico. The Tigers will not face a SEC opponent until Week 4 (Arkansas) and they will not play a preseason top-25 team on the road until Oct. 5 when they travel to Athens to take on Georgia. That means Auburn will have considerable game-time to sort through its issues up front.
Auburn’s regular-season win total for the 2024 campaign is currently set at 7.5, per FanDuel. FanDuel has Auburn at +730 to reach the College Football Playoff in 2024.
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Auburn will kick off the 2024 season against Alabama A&M on Aug. 31.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
