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AUBURN — Auburn football’s offense was a liability in 2023.
There’s no sugarcoating it. The lone bright spot came on the ground — the Tigers rushed for 189 yards per game, which was top 25 nationally — but the aerial attack was horrendous. There were six games in coach Hugh Freeze’s first season in which Auburn didn’t have a quarterback exceed 105 passing yards, and the average of 162.2 passing yards was last in the SEC.
Mississippi State posted a second-to-last mark of 181.8, nearly 20 yards better than the Tigers.
The paltry numbers saw Freeze move on from offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery in January, and he hired longtime Ole Miss assistant Derrick Nix to replace him.
Freeze, who worked with Nix with the Rebels from 2012-16, wants to get back to a run-pass ratio more in line with what he’s done in the past. He hopes that change can remedy the through-the-air woes.
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“Ideally, when we’ve been very good, it’s been that 55% run to 45% pass,” Freeze said March 19. “If you had had that ideal percentage, I think it means you’re pretty effective. … If you’re running it really, really well, then it may be more 60/40, but you’ve got to be able to do both and stay balanced.”
The Tigers ran 818 offensive plays last season, according to College Football Reference, and 317 of those snaps ended with a pass. That’s a rate of 38.8%. That figure, however, does not take into account the 37 plays that resulted in sacks.
“I do think that if we can be consistent in our RPO game, that it really opens us to be more effective in the passing game,” Freeze said. “Because you’re not always having to drop-back protect. I just don’t think that’s a great recipe in…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/2024-goal-hugh-freeze-auburn-091730380.html
Author : The Montgomery Advertiser
Publish date : 2024-03-27 09:17:30
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