Hugh Freeze addresses the media following Auburn's season-opening 73-3 win over Alabama A&M

um obviously is is um I wish they were all kind of like that they won't be but um good to see a lot of kids get involved and a lot of faces we have a lot of things to clean up um but certainly pleased with a lot of aspects I know it's uh Auburn's 800th Victory there's been a lot of great staffs coaches players that uh through the years have contributed to that and we're happy to to be a part of those 800 wins I think we're only the 13th program in FBS to to have that um so it puts you among the elite can't say enough about our student section I I don't I mean they stayed they're here two hours before the game when we get here and they stay to the very end and our band and cheerleaders and student section they're incredible and obviously our fans are always incredible and um so five newcomers with a receiving TD most team passing yards in an opener it should have been more we had some drops and some bad two bad decisions by our quarterbacks um so um solid solid day I thought defensively we were okay too many penalties and um you know I think DJ would would would agree that we we miss a line too many times um and you expect some of that in the opener because you're really not sure what you're you're going to see and you may have not worked everything that that that you see but we've got to be able to adjust and and line up correctly and I didn't think we uh harassed the quarterback as as well as as I had hoped so but man great obviously celebrate a win with our team the 8 in uh school history is a it's a good night and uh always good to play in Jordan hair coach just the five penalties tonight for your team in total and the two turnovers were late in the fourth quarter when the game was you know was was out of hand was this the the type of clean football you wanted to have in week one or or were you you know you I didn't want the two turnovers that that still irritates me um doesn't matter what what uh group you're with we we worked that constantly and it's what we do on Mondays every day offensively every Monday's ball security Monday and um you know it's frustrating to see those two turnovers for sure I don't like that being on our stat sheet at all um I thought the five penalties I mean that's doesn't sound like a lot but it's you know I didn't think the the roughing the passer you you you know we talk about that all the time you cannot pick the quarterback up and that's just a foolish penalty that um that we can't have and our DBS sometimes get a little sloppy and they're not playing the the ball and too handsy and that caught us a couple times there but uh so we got to clean those up for sure but the two turnovers you know I don't care what group you're on that the expectation is we take care of the ball with our offensive it so a lot of times in games like this coaches want to get out of it with no injuries and get to play a lot of players that's always the case is there something else you can add to that that as a head coach you look for in a game that's so overly matched that you can take away from this well I mean I thought the execution early on offensively particularly in the passing game and we didn't call a lot of runs really and um well if we did they gave us the RPO and I thought our execution of that and young kids who've not played in front of the 89,000 here and in this atmosphere they seem to be to handle it pretty well so we're going to need those guys to play really really well this year as as our schedule's going to get really difficult pretty quick um you know I need to watch the film and and see kind of Payton's got to clean up a few things too and that that frustrate me and he and the thing is he knows better um we missed a wide open spot right on third down that is his first progression and um he he knows that and he's I've got to get him to where that doesn't happen and those are going to be critical third Downs in in coming weeks and he needs to get get himself protected in the RPO game and he knows how to do that and that's that's a little frustrating when he still threw a touchdown but he's going to take a shot in coming weeks that's not going to be very pleasant I coach a lot of offense tonight uh but do you feel like you maybe got out of this one without showing much on tape uh obviously it was a 60 um a 6040 run pass ratio in favor of the run you know is that indicative of what we can expect moving forward or 6040 to the run I'm sorry pass pass heavy no know I would like to be uh the exact opposite truthfully um but but you you guys are listen to me I don't care I don't really get hung up on the rushing stats I get hung up on what we average per run because I mean we can sit here and say hey we rushed it 60% of the time and only average two yards because we're running into bad boxes and stuff that's not who we are I believe we averaged almost 10 yards a rush tonight and so that's really good but there were a lot of runs called that they gave us the rpos and that's who we are and um but if we average nine yards a carry for for the any game I'm going to be really happy U but ideally I'd love to be 6040 the other way we we've seen a lot over the years where coaches will get in games like this and and just run the football and run a clock out but you ran the offense and allowed guys to continue how important is that for those young guys young wide receivers and really everybody to continue to execute the offense yeah so it's a it's a balance in that because the last thing you ever want to be seen you know is like we were trying to to do something that was unsportsman like and but it's game one and Han needs to run the off offense and Holden needs to run the offense and Malcolm Simmons needs to be know what RPO to run and so you know I just we kind of just let them we didn't intentionally throw any deep shots they jumped off sides and our obviously that's what we do on on that but the other the other throws were were truthfully just in the RPO game and just trying to run the offense hey um Malcolm Perry and cam all get in the end zone tonight is someone who hit the recruiting Trail hard specifically to upgrade at the receiver position how satisfying was it for you tonight to see all three of them make an impact it was it was really satisfying and enjoy I enjoyed the they're just young kids man and they just are enjoying playing and going through the experience and it's fun to see them and um you know I thought Dre set a good tone for that room and U Robert is a great those two are really good leaders and you obviously we've talked about how talented those young kids are but uh I didn't you know if I could have damed it up and said hey I'd love for all three of them to score um that would have been really nice I don't I don't know that I had a feeling that cam would because I just I knew we could take some shots with him um wasn't sure that we could get all of them in the end zone but it's really nice to see that they were they were quite excited for each other too which I love you how important was it to U for the offense really and Payton to get the ball down the field and uh really add that explosive element to this offense attack yeah there's nothing like confidence um and you know that's something that we've always been good at is is is creating explosive plays and we weren't very good at that last year and it's uh certainly an emphasis of when when I brought Nicks on um he knows how I feel about that he knows that's the first cut up I watch on Sundays is I want to see the explosive reel from last year and I want to already know in my mind how we are going to try to create those and um I think the um the players see that and hear me talk about that and hear Nicks talk about that and um they understand it's an expectation and um if our receivers in those plays are in one-on ones they're open that's that's the rule in these shot plays or explosive opportunities and um and so that I think anytime you have a game even if it's like this where you are able to create those that it only builds confidence in the kids and maybe they believe in our scheming and play calling better and and makes them make better plays I don't know but it was good to see that happen Hugh y'all started Tyler Johnson at left tackle but Percy got in early y were rotating just what you think of those two guys just kind of snap reaction and and and the offensive line as a whole uh I hadn't watched the film on that it's really hard for me to tell I didn't you know in my conversations with Jake on on the Run game we had a plan and and they played us a little different and so um but again we threw so many rpos even on runs so it was really hard to to tell but again we averaged nine yards a rush so they had to do fairly well um Tyler and Percy were going to need both of them so I'm not hung up on who goes out there first or I want to grade the film and see who does the best but we're going to need both of them just how encouraging it was it to see town just have a really good night stepping in in his F first collegate game yeah he seems to uh he seems you know we've had some kickoffs that have have kind of gone squirely in practice and stuff but he gets in this stadium and it's like he's right at home and and doesn't miss a thing so that's really good to see we we're going to need him early in the season for sure you had mentioned that the defense had a few misalignment issues but overall seemed to play fairly well is there anything that you particularly like that you saw from the defense and then maybe something that you just as of right now would want to see fixed I didn't think we uh I didn't think we tackled too poorly so that was good um but didn't I I guess the the biggest thing to me is I was a little shocked that we didn't crush the pocket a little little better um you know and I might be wrong when I watched the film but it just it kind of felt that way but uh I mean overall it was a solid night and um clean up the misalignments and you know we had a couple times s where you know it's just technique stuff where we we brought somebody off the edge and he's he's got the high train right to the up the field on the naked or anything and he tracks the the running back you know we got to clean those things up but um all in all we got a lot of kids in and and and held Isaiah out and get got his ankle some more rest so um hopefully we can learn from the mistakes we did make and and be improved next week coach going off of that on Monday you said it wasn't clear who or what this team is at this point it's going to take Saturdays to prove it obviously a lot of Saturdays still left but what do you take from this one what was your message to the team in terms of getting to where you would like to be more Saturdays ahead uh handle handle what's right in front of us um learn from what we didn't do well tonight and and uh take confidence in what we did do well and let's let's grow from that but we certainly hadn't arrived yet and um you know but right in front of us is some some great opportunities in our home stadium and got to handle the successes and failures both um the same way they both can be your enemies they both can be your friend so um we'll see how the leadership handles you know us having a uh good opener but going to get much harder soon