Kiffin sounds off after Auburn’s Freeze blames quarterback play for loss

OXFORD, Miss. — One Rebels’ star quarterback Bo Wallace shared plenty of negativity to go around Saturday after Auburn coach Hugh Freeze threw his quarterbacks under the bus.

Freeze’s take has taken the SEC coaching circle by storm and made it to the mouthpiece of the league’s coaches, Lane Kiffin. As an offensive-minded coach like Freeze, Kiffin has made a living off some of the best arms in the nation like Matt Barkley, Matt Corral and now Jaxson Dart.

When parents entrust coaches to not only take care of their sons physical and mental health it cannot be taken lightly and Kiffin embraces that fact. Trust goes a very long ways establishing a relationship in recruiting that will carry on all throughout life.

Lane Kiffin with some interesting words following what Hugh Freeze said after Auburn’s loss to Arkansas

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— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) September 23, 2024

“It’s the relationship,” Kiffin told reporters Monday. “I just think, from on the field, there’s a trust level there, you know, we spend a lot of time with [quarterbacks] and then let him play on Saturdays. I just think that, like you said, you know, it started one way.

“I think that you build that [relationship], especially for a guy that we didn’t really recruit out of high school, I think it pays off, you know, when you have relationships and the quarterbacks trust you too.”

Similar to Auburn’s most recent loss to Arkansas where quarterbacks Hank Brown and Payton Thorne combined to toss five interceptions, Kiffin used another game played against Arkansas in 2020 as an example to always edify players in the locker room.

Corral was a redshirt sophomore playing in a wildly windy Razorback Stadium in 2020 when he threw six of his 14 interceptions that season against the Razorbacks.

“Go back to Matt Corral when he threw six interceptions and before I even got to the media [room] sitting out with him, telling him ‘we got to do a better job calling plays. I got to coach better. And don’t worry, we got your back.’

“That goes a long ways and goes long ways with kids in recruiting you know, knowing what they’re going to get when they get here, a relationship, and that they can trust us to have their back.”

Freeze Doesn’t Stop Talking 

During Freeze’s radio show “Tiger Talk,” he double-downed on his “all about me” persona Monday with what he called a “hard truth bomb” that his team would beat Arkansas every single time if the two programs met again.

Hugh Freeze on Tiger Talk: “I love Sam Pittman and I hope he wins the rest of his games. But I’m telling you that the hard truth is that if we play them nine more times, we’d beat them nine more times. That’s what’s hard to take.”

— Jay G. Tate 🇺🇸 (@JayGTate) September 23, 2024

Sometimes as a human being its better to keep quiet, put your head down and keep working. However, some coaches would rather keep things interesting which keeps media folks pretty busy year around.