The road woes that plagued the Rebels against Florida and Memphis seem to have been fixed with great defensive games in back-to-back weeks against Texas A&M and Saturday at Auburn, which Ole Miss won 27-19.
“I was real proud of our kids and our staff, going out and handling a hostile environment pretty well,” Hugh Freeze, head coach, said. “Defensively, 73 total plays, 66 of those plays we held a very good football team to 170 yards. We gave up seven explosive plays. That is the good and the bad of the game.”
Recently, Freeze approached his offensive plan differently in a move that has allowed him to focus more on the defense and help lead to its improvement on third down. Co-offensive coordinator Dan Werner called the majority of the plays Saturday, and it seemed to pay off for the offense. The Rebels put up 29 points on 558 total yards of offense as a result.
“I started giving a lot of the (offensive) play calling duties to Dan (Werner) so I can go and see if I can assist on the other side,” Freeze said. “We started doing that and now we have played really great defense these last two weeks. Dave (Wommack) and his staff have done a great job planning, and our kids have executed most of the time.”
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Burchett)” width=”300″ height=”199″ /> (Head Coach Hugh Freeze reviews the Auburn game with media at Tuesday”s press conference. | Photo by: Thomas Burchett)Freeze still has a say in the some of the play-calling, which he reiterated Saturday after the game and at the weekly presser Monday. Whenever Freeze feels like a play needs to be called, Freeze can interject and make his call.
“You judge where your team is at, and see where you can assist the most,” Freeze said. “I just felt like I needed to spend a lot more time with our team. It always has been a joint effort. I am involved still. These are the packages that we are carrying.”
Taking the reigns of the offensive play-calling has taken up a good portion of Freeze’s preparation with the team during practices. Now that he and Werner split the play-calling, the head coach of the Rebels can now focus on other aspects of the game and make sure his team has the proper intensity and preparations come game time.
“Something that is a disadvantage with the defense is when I go to defense, I am involved with that. That’s when they are talking about the next series,” Freeze said. “I’m on the defensive channel. They know the packages. They know what we like in those packages and we’ll rank them. It has been beneficial thus far.”
Last year’s Arkansas game was the Rebels’ worst performance of the regular season. The team was battling injuries and ended up losing 30-0, and Freeze is ready for another shot at the Razorbacks.
“I’m a competitor and an offensive coach. As soon as we were able to turn our attention from Auburn, that was on my mind,” Freeze said. “I like getting another shot at that. It motivates me.”
Although Arkansas had a disappointing start to their season, going 4-4 with losses to to Toledo and Texas Tech, Freeze said the Razorbacks tend to get better as the season goes on and this year was no exception.
“It will be an SEC fistfight. It will be a physical game,” Freeze said. “They can control the clock, and they have good schemes on both sides. We have a big test ahead of us. It’ll be a close, physical battle on Saturday.”
