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The Auburn Tigers went just 5-7 in 2024, their second season under head coach Hugh Freeze. That brought Freeze’s overall record on the plains to 11-14, and struggling offenses are a big reason why.
Auburn ranked just 71st in scoring offense under Freeze in 2024, and just 76th the year prior. Now it seems Freeze has a plan in place to address those struggles. But his plan makes little to no sense.
Justin Hokanson, who covers the Tigers for On3 Sports, reports that Auburn will have three different offensive play callers in 2025.
Since we spoke with Derrick Nix and Kent Austin yesterday, just to reiterate…
Nix handles 1st down strategy/play-calling. Austin handles 3rd down strategy/play-calling. And as Nix said of Hugh Freeze, “head coach has the authority to overrule anything we say or do.”
How often…
— Justin Hokanson (@_JHokanson) August 12, 2025
Auburn Tigers Will Have Different Play Callers For First, Second, And Third Down
Coaching football games is often a collaborative effort. If a head coach isn’t on the same page with his assistants, things can go off the rails in a hurry. But Freeze seems to be taking that to a new, unheard-of level.
According to Hokanson, offensive coordinator Derrick Nix will call plays on first down. Freeze himself will call plays on second down, and then quarterback coach Kent Austin will handle play-calling duties on third down.
“(The) head coach has the authority to overrule anything we say or do,” Nix told Hokanson.
When asked how often Freeze overrules him, Nix said, “It depends on how the game is going. But he’s highly involved. To me, he’s an outstanding play caller, and I’ve learned everything from him.”
Now, when you listen to the best offensive coordinators and play callers throughout history, they often talk about the flow of the game. Understanding the flow of the game and how opposing defenses are reacting is essential to good play-calling.
How exactly are you supposed to understand and adjust to the flow of the game when you’re only calling one out of every three plays? And who calls the plays on fourth down?
Maybe it works for Freeze. After all, he cut his teeth as an offensive coordinator and later as a highly touted offensive-minded head coach. So he must have some idea of what he’s doing here.
But it’s one of the weirdest play-calling setups we’ve ever seen.