Hugh Freeze explains plan for collaborative play-calling in 2025
By Jake Faigus
Published:
Auburn football has a strange offensive play-calling setup this season.
The Tigers will utilize 3 different play-callers, and it will all depend on the down and situation. Derrick Nix is the offensive coordinator, but Hugh Freeze said he will only call plays on first down, while quarterbacks coach Kent Austin is handling third down. Freeze said that he would handle all of the second-down plays.
This setup caused a bit of confusion.
Freeze offered up some clarity on the situation after Thursday’s practice.
“Derrick Nix is the offensive coordinator, and he does all the planning and scripting, and is in charge of the game plan,” Freeze told reporters. “But, man, there’s no staff without collaboration on the plan. Offensively or defensively, I reserve the right to say on the call sheet, yeah, I don’t like that one right here. But he does a great job for us.
“Kent (Austin) leads the third-down plan. But other than that, Nix leads the charge and has the playcalling duties, with me reserving the right to say — I’ll go over when we’re on defense to do head-coaching duties and do the same thing there. I don’t tell DJ a lot, but sometimes I can see what I think offenses are doing. And I’ll say, hey, we need to cloud this.”
Freeze has a history of being the primary play-caller dating back to Ole Miss and Liberty. Still, he said the collaborative process is based on what Nix and Austin suggest for first and third-down scenarios. It’s ultimately up to Freeze to decide what they are doing for any given scenario, and he has final veto or approval power in those scenarios.
The biggest key Freeze talked about is that, due to their long time together, he has a high trust level with Nix and Austin, so no adjustments need to be made.
Auburn begins the new season on the road against Baylor on Aug. 29.
