Hugh Freeze says he’s never had an offensive stretch quite like what he’s experiencing at Auburn

Freeze points out that while the Tigers have played a stretch of tough opponents, his offense is in a lull he’s never seen.

Auburn’s offense is on pace to be one of the worst the Tigers have seen this century.

As of right now Philip Montgomery’s offense is averaging 4.88 yards per play against Division I opponents. That’s the worst mark found in Auburn’s history on cfbstats.com, a database that stretches all the way back to 2009.

This is the worst offense Tiger fans have seen in a long time. Shocking, considering most thought the offenses Auburn had underneath Bryan Harsin were the low points.

Hugh Freeze doesn’t seem to have a lot of answers for what he’s seeing play out on the field. The Tigers are still “searching” for an answer according to him.

During Monday’s press conference, Freeze was asked if he’s ever seen a stretch like this for one of his offenses… ever.

“I think you can go look at my offensive stats everywhere I’ve been, and the answer is no,” Freeze said. “Never […] you ask a lot of questions, and it certainly challenges you […] we’ve played some good football teams. Some of it’s us, some of it’s them. But no, I haven’t experienced a stretch quite like that.”

Freeze pointed to bad play calling and lack of execution against Ole Miss. There were moments where the staff set up the plays well, the team just didn’t execute (a prime example being the first play of the game where Ashford kept the ball for a loss). But there were also times where the Tigers just didn’t get the right call in.

When Auburn had opportunities, they wasted them away in one fashion or another.

“It just seems like every time we would have something positive going like that – not every time – but sometimes, it was we’d get a bad break or obviously we’d make a bad call, or we don’t execute a call correctly,” Freeze said.

This isn’t what Freeze wants, and in the end it’s both encouraging and discouraging for Freeze that Auburn has still been able to be competitive at home against Georgia and Ole Miss.

It still isn’t what he wants to see.

“Have I seen the results that you want on the field? Again, we’ve played a very difficult stretch of games and had a chance to win a couple of those against top teams in the nation,” Freeze said. “In it’s own way it’s encouraging, it’s also discouraging that you had some things happen in those games that you know you can do better or coach better.”