HawgBeat - What Auburn HC Hugh Freeze said about Arkansas
See what Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze had to say about Arkansas and Sam Pittman.
arkansas.rivals.com
Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze began his first season with the Tigers this year after leading the Liberty Flames to an 8-4 record that included a 21-19 win over Arkansas during the 2022-23 season.
Freeze was also head coach for Ole Miss from 2012-16, when he led the Rebels to a 39-25 overall record that included a 2-3 mark against the Razorbacks.
After dropping four straight games to Texas A&M, Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss, the Tigers have battled back with back to back wins over Mississippi State and Vanderbilt in the last two weeks.
Last season, Arkansas defeated Auburn 41-27 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Quarterback KJ Jefferson completed 16 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown, while running back Raheim Sanders added 171 yards off of 16 carries.
This season, Auburn starting quarterback Payton Thorne has completed 63.9% of his passes for 1,269 yards and 10 touchdowns to six interceptions. He's also added 337 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
Starting running back Jarquez Hunter has totaled 636 yards and seven touchdowns on 108 carries this season. In his last two games, he's ran the ball for 327 yards and two touchdowns off of 36 carries.
Here is everything Hugh Freeze had to say about Arkanas in his Monday press conference ahead of Saturday's game in Fayetteville, which is slated to kickoff at 3:00 p.m. CT and will be available to watch on the SEC Network:
On Arkansas as a whole:
Freeze: "Really impressed with them. I think they've lost five games by one score or less to really good football teams and obviously they're coming off a big win on the road in Gainesville. I think they've got a lot of motivation and it's a very scary team. I think they're doing a really good job.
"They're really good on defense, stopping the run. Obviously KJ (Jefferson), I've had great respect for him for many years now and knew him out of high school. He's a great leader. They've kind of gone back to playing like they did last year offensively it appears. They seem much more confident. So, we got our hands full with that."
On KJ Jefferson:
Freeze: "Yeah, it's amazing some of the tackles he gets out of. And then extends plays. So that would be certainly an area that we got to, I mean you watch him enough you know you're not going to get him on the ground every single time. You just hope those are not explosive runs or explosive passes that happen after you miss him. But he's very, very strong and very, very difficult to get on the ground."
On beating Arkansas at Liberty last season:
Freeze: "We had come off of a big win against BYU, and I believe it was after an open week. We traveled to Arkansas. The first thing that I was concerned about, my experience in Arkansas in November has not been pleasent. The two times that we went there when I was at Ole Miss, the weather was atrocious and I was just thankful that when we went at Liberty, it was a nice day. And it appears this Saturday it's going to be fairly nice.
"I tell our teams the truth. I remember telling them, 'You're the underdog, you shouldn't win this game. But that's what makes it fun, to go in and give it a shot. It's why you play the game. You don't have to be better 10 times, you just have to be better that one day.' I can't remember exactly what our theme was that week, our kids played really hard that day I know and stopped their run pretty much. That's something we need to do this week also."
