Lane Kiffin Trolls Hugh Freeze as Auburn Persists with 3-Headed Play Calling Monster

“I try to do a good job on first-and-10, drive-starters. Kent does our third downs,” Nix told reporters this week. “The head coach has the authority to overrule anything we say or do.”

Freeze hired Nix away from Kiffin and Ole Miss, and Kiffin hasn’t let anyone forget it as the offense looked discombobulated too often last season.  Despite the frequent barbs from Kiffin, Freeze takes it all in stride.

“I'm not on social media, but I love Lane,” Freeze said at SEC Media Days of his good-natured rivalry. “He makes me laugh. He's a good football coach for sure. Loved his family a long time; Chris, his brother, was with me at the beginning of my journey. I owe a lot to him and his wife, Angela. Monte would always come and help when he could. I think Lane's done a great job. I couldn't get away with doing all the social media, so I admire him. Go have fun with it.”

Having several voices collectively pitch in for scouting and a game plan makes a lot of sense, but too many cooks in the kitchen in the heat of the battle is a recipe for disaster. When the pressure is on, and the clock is ticking, a general is more effective than a committee meeting.

Those disasters were frequent last season as Auburn turned the ball over at an alarming rate, as the quarterback became the fourth voice capable of audibling at the line of scrimmage. 

At the end of the day, credit and blame will ultimately fall upon Freeze's shoulders. He cannot make a late-season replacement of either Austin or Nix. In fact, this is the management structure he chose, and it will be the one that will ultimately answer for the offense. 

Freeze pledged to slow things down and simplify things for new quarterback Jackson Arnold, but he didn’t simplify or streamline the play-calling duties. 

Will that decision wreck all of the personnel improvements he made in the offseason?

We’ll find out beginning with Auburn’s trip to Baylor on Friday, August 29th.