By Brant Daughtry
I know this is supposed to be a preview of Oklahoma, but I have some important thoughts about the situation at Auburn right now. Forgive me, I’m not on the show much anymore and I need an outlet for my thoughts. We’ll start with my biggest complaint I guess.
The offense is just bad. It doesn’t work consistently. There’s been a lot of talk about the yards per play recently, which is fair. Looking at that raw stat, there’s room for defending the state of the offense. The problem is, those numbers are coming largely due to the occasional explosive play against defenses that are, frankly, subpar. Auburn can’t get it done consistently, and boom or bust isn’t going to cut it in today’s football.
Let’s talk about turnovers. One of Hugh Freeze’s go-to’s is to talk about how the game plan was great and the play calling worked but those darn quarterbacks won’t stop throwing interceptions. Which is true, even if I don’t like the way he tends to deliver the message. The problem though, is that the interception problem follows him around. Let’s look at some figures.
Courtesy of OANow’s Justin Lee, Hugh Freeze’s quarterbacks have, going back to 2021 at Liberty, now thrown 15, 15, and 13 interceptions. Good for somewhere in the 115th-120th range in FBS those years. You can also go back and look at some of his time at Ole Miss, Where Bo Wallace, whose made himself known a lot lately, threw 17, 10, and 14 interceptions in three years in Freeze’s offense. Payton Thorne is far from a world-beater, and everyone who watched Auburn last year realizes that. But the fact is, Freeze’s offense has an interception problem. It follows him across schools, players, conferences, and years. The QB play definitely has to be better, but the problem is not squarely on their shoulders.
Freeze is suddenly very much on the hot seat. How fair that is, who can say? But regardless, he needs to start winning games on Saturdays. The off-season national champion schtick is getting old quickly, and the schedule isn’t getting any easier. Speaking of which…
Oklahoma is led by former Clemson defensive guru Brent Venables. When Dabo Sweeny was on his run, Venables was in charge of some really outstanding defensive units. He was in line for several head coaching vacancies during that run, including Auburn’s if you believe certain rumors, but elected to wait it out. He finally bit on Oklahoma’s offer, and after a really rough start, got the Sooners to 10 wins last season, including a win over Texas in what was probably the game of the year.
His defense aligns in a 4-3 or 4-2-5 look most of the time with athletic but small linebackers. It’s designed to not get outrun and take away quick passing lanes, a smart adaptation to the modern spread-RPO style offenses. Can you see where I’m going with this? This is a really bad matchup for Auburn’s offense, and Freeze is going to have to be very creative to scheme around it. One method of doing that could be imitating what Tennessee did in their win over the Sooners. Auburn doesn’t have the horses that Tennessee does, but the idea of running right at the Oklahoma defense and forcing one-on-one matchups on the outside isn’t a bad idea. Auburn needs to run the ball more. This is a good week to start for several reasons.
Offensively, the Sooners are coordinated by Seth Littrell, former North Texas head coach. He runs an air raid style of offense, but don’t think Mike Leach air raid. Oklahoma wants to run the football, and they do so well. Littrell has said himself he doesn’t consider his offense “air raid” so don’t get too bogged down in the label. They run quick concepts and will throw to set up the run, often using short passes as an extension of the running game. But they’ll also line up in pistol sets and run it down your throat if you let them.
The QB situation at Oklahoma is a weird one. After a bad start at Tennessee, sophomore Jackson Arnold was benched and replaced with true freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. While the offense didn’t look great, he did well enough for Venables to announce this week that Hawkins will get the start against Auburn. Sorry to say guys, but this kid is super mobile and super talented. He looked decent against Tennessee’s defense, and that group is better than Auburn’s. Fans can have an impact on this game. It’s the first start in the career of a true freshman on the road in conference play. It’s a tough task for the kid, and that’s a big storyline to look for on Saturday.
Players to Watch For:
Wide Receiver Deion Burks, #6- The air raid offense uses every different kind of receiver you can imagine. Burks is the small quick slot guy who catches a million passes a game for five-to-eight yards per. The junior is the leading receiver for Oklahoma, having caught 26 passes in four games for 201 yards and three touchdowns. He’s also carried the ball on run plays a few times this year as well. That extension of the running game I mentioned earlier? Burks is that guy. He won’t kill you with deep balls, but he’s death by a thousand paper cuts.
Linebacker Danny Stutsman, #28- Stutsman is the leading tackler for the Sooners this year by a good margin. He’s racked up 36 on the year, with 15 of those coming in game two against Houston. He’s almost always near the ball and towards the bottom of the pile. Auburn needs to run the ball in this game, and to do that successfully they’ll need to handle 28. He doesn’t have any sacks, and only one tackle for loss. He’s not a guy they do a ton with, but what he does, he does very well.
This is an opportunity to get back on track for Auburn. Oklahoma is coming off a dissapeointng loss to Tennessee, and this is their first road game as an SEC member. But things are very close to getting out of hand in Auburn. Truth be told, I don’t love the Tigers chances. But the door is open. There’s opportunity here. It’s up to them to kick the door down.
