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Hugh Freeze will face one of the best defenses in the country on Saturday as Auburn takes on Georgia.
Freeze has seen Smart’s defense in action for years now, and he had high praise for what Smart has managed to accomplish on the defensive side of the ball.
“The things that stay grounded are they’re very sound, they tackle extremely well, and obviously they’re very good players,” Freeze said during the SEC coaches teleconference. “He’s had that all the way back to the times we competed against each other when he was at Alabama.”
Freeze has been competing with Smart since he was at Ole Miss and Smart was at Georgia. Over the years, he has seen Smart’s defenses evolve. Used to, Freeze was able to predict what Smart was throwing at him. Now, that’s all changed.
“A large percentage of the time at least I knew the personnel that he was going to do and he was probably going to play an odd front, and go with his bigs,” Freeze said. “And if you go 11 personnel, you’re probably going to get an even front. All that stuff has changed and all the simulated pressures and everything that they do, they do at a high, high level and mix up coverages extremely well. They’re the same principles of playing hard and sound and assignment sound and tackling well are all still there. But it has definitely evolved into harder to predict exactly what you’re going to get from week to week.”
Freeze will try his hand at containing Georgia’s dominant defense on Saturday. Last week, Georgia gave up a season-high 21 points to UAB. Freeze is now hoping his team can have that kind of success.
