Hugh Freeze on Auburn loss to UGA: ‘We find ways to not win football games’
AUBURN, Ala. — A dejected Hugh Freeze struggled to put his team’s 20-10 loss to No. 10 Georgia into perspective late Saturday night.
“It’s very clear that we find ways to not win football games,” Freeze said. “That (Auburn) locker room is good enough to play with anyone.”
Georgia (5-1, 3-1 SEC) rose to the occasion in front of a sold-out Jordan-Hare Stadium, when, trailing 10-0 and backed up to its own 1-yard line, linebackers CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson knocked the ball loose from Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold as he attempted to cross the goal line.
The play was reviewed and there was not enough evidence that the ball had crossed the plane of the goal line, giving the Bulldogs the ball after Kyron Jones’ fumble recovery at the 1 and the momentum needed for UGA to turn the game around.
“I felt like we broke the plane,” Freeze said of the pivotal goal-line play. “The nose of the ball has to break the plane, but it didn’t go our way.”
Seemingly, most everything had gone Auburn’s way up to that point, as the Tigers looked to make the most of generous scheduling that afforded them a bye week leading into the 130th matchup in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
Had Arnold scored on the QB sneak, the Tigers would have led 17-0 against a Georgia team that had generated just 19 yards of offense to that point. Instead, the Bulldogs came alive, driving 88 yards to set up a Peyton Woodring 29-yard field goal that bought Georgia within a score at 10-3 with 13 seconds before halftime.
Freeze credited Smart and his staff for making adjustments that led to the Bulldogs dominating the second half. Georgia’s defense pitched a shutout in the third and fourth quarters, while the offense gobbled up yards with time-consuming drives that featured one converted third down after another.
The Bulldogs also kept the chains moving on a key fourth-down conversion on their final scoring drive when Gunner Stockton hit London Humphreys for an 8-yard completion on fourth-and-3 at the Auburn 40-yard line.
Zachariah Branch was another key receiver often in the middle of the action, leading Georgia with nine catches for 57 yards.
Stockton, ultimately, finished off Auburn with a 10-yard scramble for a touchdown with 1:53 remaining, finishing off a 16-play drive that took 8 minutes, 45 seconds off the clock.
“They ate up a lot of the clock,” said Freeze, whose team had only five possessions on the second half. “We have to look at why (Auburn) didn’t have success. Obviously the plan was good in the first half.”
Arnold, a highly touted transfer from Oklahoma and former Top-10 national prospect, finished 19-of-31 passing for 137 yards and led the Tigers with 55 yards rushing and a touchdown on 13 carries.
Freeze, one of the most renowned offensive minds in college football, lamented the Tigers’ inability to run the ball in the second half after outgaining Georgia 237 yards to 78 yards in the first half, including a 130-19 advantage in rushing yardage through the first 30 minutes.
“They stopped the run,” Freeze said of the second-half action. “You know, we got popped on an interior pressure on one of the third downs, then I thought we missed making plays on the others in the passing game.
“But they started taking away the zone game. They’re big and strong, and our angles weren’t really good on the zone runs that we hit them with in the first half.”
Indeed, as much as Auburn dominated the first half, Georgia was equally impressive taking control in the second half.
The Bulldogs outgained the Tigers 218 yards to 40 in the second half, holding a 60-10 advantage in rushing yards over the final 30 minutes.
“We didn’t have enough plays, truthfully,” Freeze said. “I think we had Eric (Singleton Jr.) open on a deep one, and Jackson had somebody kind of (pressuring him). I think it was just a kind of a bang-bang deal.
“Making that play, whether it’s us sustaining a protection a half-second longer, standing in there and making a throw or whether it’s making that catch.”
Freeze, who was asked about his job security on the SEC coaches teleconference Monday, was asked how accountability looks for him after a third straight loss dropped the Tigers to 3-3 overall and 0-3 in SEC play.
“Easy,” Freeze said, “Show up Monday, that’s what it looks like.”
About the Author
Mike is in his eighth season covering SEC and Georgia athletics for AJC-DawgNation and has 30 years of collegiate sports multimedia experience, 25 of them in the SEC including beat writer stops at Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee and now Georgia. Mike was named the National FWAA Beat Writer of the Year in January, 2018.
