In one aspect, Hugh Freeze’s reputation has always preceded him. From Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Lynchburg, Virginia, those who have watched him work have witnessed it firsthand.
Freeze’s quarterbacks have thrived, and they do so in a high-tempo, run-pass-option scheme that took college football by storm when it began to click for his Ole Miss teams in the 2010s, to the point it beat Nick Saban Alabama teams in 2014 and 2015.
The success of Freeze’s quarterbacks is the most notable constant of his coaching career, and he didn’t mind acknowledging that when he was introduced as Auburn football’s head coach in November 2022.
“I do think I have a gift to help develop quarterbacks,” Freeze said Nov. 29, 2022. “I think, if you look at everywhere we’ve been, we’ve had pretty good success with that.”
He’s yet to live up to that reputation on the Plains, though, enough wonder if he’s lost his touch with it.
While his Auburn tenure has been brief, the quarterback play Freeze has gotten is at or near the bottom of his four stops as an FBS head coach. The Tigers have struggled to find consistency on offense and took a step back record-wise in his second season at the helm.
Things will look mighty different for Auburn in 2025, with Hank Brown, Holden Geriner and Walker White transferring out this offseason. Their departures meant four of the five quarterbacks to take snaps for Freeze at Auburn have left the program.
That trio, as well as two-year starter Payton Thorne, whose eligibility expired this season, will be replaced by two five-star recruits in Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold and 2025 signee Deuce Knight. They’ll be joined by former four-star Tanner Bailey and longtime Stanford starter Ashton Daniels.
Freeze will be staking his reputation on a revamped quarterback room — with his job security on the line now more than ever.
What happens this fall will provide the best answers for where Freeze’s quarterback prowess stands. In the meantime, here’s a look at how Auburn’s quarterbacks have stacked up with Freeze’s other passers, and words from four of his best former signal-callers — including Bo Wallace, Chad Kelly and Malik Willis — on his ability to cultivate a quarterback.
Where does Auburn football’s quarterback play stand in Hugh Freeze’s history?
It’s not metaphorical, or even anecdotal. Freeze has never had quarterbacks struggle like they have at Auburn.
That’s not to say Auburn’s quarterback play has been consistent. Thorne logged nearly half of his passing yards in his final four games, while throwing nine touchdowns and just two interceptions. His 2,713 passing yards in 2024 were the most an Auburn quarterback had logged since 2019.
But the quarterback position goes far deeper than a single statistic, and the history of Freeze’s quarterback production shows that Auburn has underwhelmed.
However, there are some bright spots.
Freeze had his quarterbacks’ role in the run game seemingly figured out in 2023. The position rushed for 720 yards, and it was just the third time in Freeze’s 12 seasons as an FBS head coach his quarterbacks rushed for at least 700 yards. But in 2024, as the program took a step back, so did that aspect of the offense, as Auburn’s quarterbacks rushed for just 317 yards.
The biggest signal for hope is what Auburn’s quarterbacks did through the air last fall, passing for 3,167 yards. That was just the second time in the past five seasons Freeze’s quarterbacks have eclipsed the 3,000-yard mark, and they did it while throwing for 27 touchdowns — marking the fourth time in his career his quarterbacks have thrown more than 25 touchdown passes.
Why Hugh Freeze has had success developing quarterbacks
Bo Wallace’s relationship with Freeze is as lengthy and complex as any quarterback who has played for him.
He’s known Freeze since he was 17, committing to play for him at Arkansas State. He was under his guidance for a season, with Freeze serving as the Red Wolves’ offensive coordinator, before transferring to community college. Then, in 2012, he committed to play for Freeze again at Ole Miss.
Most recently, Wallace has been publicly critical of the Auburn coach. In a since-deleted post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Wallace said Freeze “can’t ever take responsibility,” that he’s “thrown so many QBs under the bus,” and that Freeze “never helped me a day in his life.”
Wallace told the Montgomery Advertiser things are far from perfect between him and his former coach. But that didn’t stop him from giving Freeze praise for what he can get done in a quarterback room.
“When I got to Ole Miss, we were terrible, dude. We were so bad,” he said. “The only thing that saved us was his (Freeze’s) offense, and that offense always having answers.”
Freeze’s offense and the intricacies of it are something Wallace praised, adding it provides an answer for every circumstance “about 95% of the time,” if not every time. He pointed to a drive against Pitt in the 2012 Birmingham Bowl, where Ole Miss ran the same play, inside zone, six-straight times.
“It was one drive, where all he did was call the same play over, and over, and over, and over with tempo,” Wallace said, “and that ball went to five different places.”
There’s an abundance of situational football involved, so reps are needed, said Green Bay Packers quarterback Malik Willis, who played for Freeze at Liberty. Willis got the chance to digest it during a redshirt season, after transferring to Liberty from Auburn.
“Once you understand what coach is trying to do, and what he’s trying to accomplish each and every play, it gives you so much freedom to go out there and play ball,” Willis said. “He well-prepares you to do so, and you just get to go out there and have fun. It’s a high-flying offense. It’s really explosive if you make it. You’ve just got to make great decisions and be accurate with the football.”
The depth of Freeze’s system goes back to an emphasis on situational football, said Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly, who played for Freeze at Ole Miss. He credited much of Freeze’s history prior to his first college head coaching job for that, when Freeze coached both defensive backs and tight ends at different levels.
“With him being able to kind of teach you what to look for — What formations are we going to get in? What downs are we looking at, and what type of coverages, right?” Kelly said. “We wanted to be able to know what we’re expecting every time we step out on the field, and what down and distance. I think he just took a lot of pride in understanding situational football, better than I’ve ever been around.”
While Freeze intensely hammered the details, both Wallace and Ryan Aplin, who was Freeze’s quarterback at Arkansas State, recall him being equally intense in practices. But one thing Aplin, who’s now the offensive coordinator at Georgia Southern, still remembers 14 years later was Freeze being as “open” as he was intense.
“I could go to him in practice, after him ripping my (expletive), and be like, ‘Hey coach, this is why I threw there. I’m not understanding what you don’t like about my decisions,’ and he would take the time to explain it to me in the moment.
“I think that was the one thing, with all the coaches I’ve had, that I loved. He would feel my frustration. And I find coaches will be like, ‘Hey, man, we’re not having the conversation now. Move on.’ Rather than, ‘Hey, listen. This is what I’m telling you. Here’s why this was wrong.’ … He gave me the big picture of what his vision was, and that helped me as a player.”
Will Hugh Freeze get it figured out at Auburn?
These four quarterbacks are in agreement: They’ll be surprised, if not shocked, if their former head coach doesn’t get things sorted at Auburn. Each has his own reasons.
To Willis, the adage “it takes all 11” came to mind immediately. While Auburn needs improved quarterback play, the Packers quarterback acknowledged it taking so much more than that. To Kelly, the biggest key for quarterback play in Freeze’s offense is having someone who’s “in rhythm” in his system, and to Wallace, Auburn found that guy this offseason.
“A Hugh Freeze offense with a guy that can run the football, like they just signed in Jackson Arnold, they can now play 11 on 11 instead of 10 on 11 all the time with the quarterback run game,” Wallace said. “I think he’s a perfect fit for what Coach Freeze really wants to do.”
All four agreed on what’s perhaps been Freeze’s biggest success in two seasons on the Plains, at least in recruiting. Kelly called it “aura.” Willis said it was about “belief.” And both Aplin and Wallace referred to it as “buy-in.”
“You look at his track record, and, yeah, the guy’s done an unbelievable job of getting guys to come out and play their best,” Aplin said. “And I think he just does such a good job of, he gets you to believe in yourself. So, I think that’s what you’ll see as we move forward. Hopefully, he’ll have a chance to do that.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Is Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze still a quarterback guru?
