Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze took to the podium on Monday afternoon following the Tigers’ 21-17 loss to Missouri on Saturday.
The Tigers have lost four straight SEC games and are 2-5 on the season.
Here’s what Freeze had to say about Saturday’s game and the rest of the season.
On the challenges on closing out close games:
“Our kids are playing really hard, and I’m pleased to see that and proud of them for that,” Freeze said. “They played well for the majority of the game Saturday, but we've got to figure out how to finish. When you're playing a top 20 team, which I think Missouri is, you can't have lapses or bad calls or bad execution at critical moments.
“We have a young team, and they're learning and they're growing, but I do think we still play not to lose instead of, man, let's play to win. And truthfully, we probably are coaching that way some too,” Freeze said.
On Missouri’s game-winning drive:
“They have an 18-play drive to win the game, and we were absolutely gassed. DBs, the young ones, who had played pretty well, keeping everything in front of them most of the game, they got tired in that,” Freeze said. “All of a sudden, in this 18-play drive with the game on the line, everything changed in the way we went about technique and playing it, and we did get gassed too up front and couldn't get any pressure, and that's really the game in a nutshell, in my eyes.”
On young player development:
“These kids are very talented, and they're the future and foundation of our program, and you see them do it in practice, and then the bullets get real, and things change a little bit,” Freeze said. “I mean, we're getting better. Perry's had a couple of really good weeks. Malcolm's getting better at understanding things, and obviously Cam's getting his reps, but we just got to get really a lot more consistent in all of the techniques of running those routes.”
On Auburn’s defense:
“Defensively, I thought we played probably our most complete game outside the 78-yard completion,” Freeze said. “They had a good quarterback, a good receiver, and he made a play and gave them an explosive run that gave them their first score to get back in it. And you got to give Brady [Cook] credit for coming back and extending plays with his legs, which really hurt us.”
On Kentucky’s defense:
“I know Coach Stoops. He will not be happy with their performance [last Saturday], and they will be working on defending the run this week like they have every other game,” Freeze said. “ If you go look at the rushing stats against them on all the other teams, Georgia included in all of them, they're not that, so I don't make too much of that game.
“But this defensive front, it starts there, and they're the real deal,” Freeze said. “The backers are really, really talented. They can run in the secondary. It's one of the better defenses we've seen.”
The Tigers head to Lexington, Kentucky, on Saturday, Oct. 26, to take on the Wildcats. Kick off is at 6:45 p.m. CST and will be televised on SEC Network.
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Grace Heim is a senior from Enterprise, Alabama, majoring in Political Science. She started with The Plainsman in January of 2023.
You can follow her on X (Twitter) at @graceeheim
