Master class chess matches of 2022: Mr Freeze vs Barry Odom
Hugh Freeze locked up a SEC job with a big win over Arkansas in what was supposed to be an SEC bye for the Hogs. How did it happen?
If you read “the Blindside” back when it came out, before Hugh Freeze was a well known villain, it’s amusing to see him portrayed in the book.
A crucial moment in the story occurs when Freeze, the head coach at Briarcrest High School (a private Christian school in the Memphis suburbs), gives up on his preference for clever scheming and play-calls and just has the offense repeatedly run “gap” behind the story’s main character Michael Oher.
Freeze would go on to become one of college football’s more cutting edge offensive coaches, employing RPOs and tempo with the best of them to build Ole Miss into a rival for Alabama and a thorn in Nick Saban’s side before he was fired in disgrace amidst scandal. Interestingly, his Ole Miss offenses were a combination of the simplicity of his “run power behind Oher” adjustment and the more clever scheming he seemed to prefer.
He was famous at Ole Miss for often calling the same play over and over again at tempo, but getting different results and even different players touching the ball from snap to snap because they’d have multiple options attached for the quarterback.
Freeze had quite a bit of success at Liberty and 2022 was a big season as he had to replace 3rd round quarterback Malik Willis. You could argue that his ability to win games and put up stats with Willis was the real case for his hire by Auburn, as Willis transferred from Auburn after Gus Malzahn chose Bo Nix over him. However, he probably cemented himself as a top candidate when he took a Willis-less Liberty team into Fayetteville, AR in 2022 and secured a victory in 2022.
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