Hugh Freeze says play callers in college football are ‘a different breed’
By Ethan Stone
Published:
Hugh Freeze knows being a good play caller isn’t quite as black and white as it would seem from the outside.
Football is incredibly complex at a micro level, and game-planning for that can be approached in different ways, with different levels of success for each individual.
At the SEC’s weekly teleconference Wednesday afternoon, Auburn’s head coach told reporters that he believes all play callers are a “different breed” entirely.
Here’s his full quote:
“I think play callers are a different breed,” Freeze said. “I think there’s a ton of guys who can sit in a room and formulate an incredible game plan but don’t have the instinct and the ability to see what’s going on when the defense is attacking in different ways, and they can’t call a great game. Then there’s those that probably can’t put on paper the greatest of game plan, but can stand on the sideline or sit in the booth and they just have this instinctive knack to calling a game. I think there’s different people like that. I kind of compare it, truthfully, to a geometry teacher, which I taught geometry back when I was a high school coach and I just think your mind works in angles and space and able to see things in that manner.”
“I don’t know if that makes any sense, but that’s kind of how I view play callers,” he continued. “But there are guys that are really instinctive to doing that. I remember asking a certain coach in this league when we were visiting you’ve had some really good offensive coordinators, which one would you want if you had one shot to win it all on Saturday and his answer was: For the game plan, this one, for calling it on the game, this one. I thought that was interesting to prove my thoughts.”
Auburn takes on LSU in Death Valley this Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
