2/6/23 Auburn Articles

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Etheridge says 'buying into culture' important for Auburn's football players

Mark Murphy

4–5 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama–As one of the two holdovers on Auburn’s on the field staff who are coaching for their alma mater, Zac Etheridge has helped Hugh Freeze get up to speed on returning players and AU football in general. Etheridge, who works with the defensive backs, said that Auburn’s new head coach has been soaking up information about “everything” regarding the program.

Freeze noted that the input from Etheridge and  Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, who is the associate head coach and the running backs coach, has been valuable.

“I lean on Cadillac quite a bit, and Zac,” Freeze points out. “There are a lot of things that we are sitting in a staff meeting, ‘Was this a big issue last year?’ And I wouldn’t know that without knowing these guys.”

Freeze added that their input, plus input from others in support roles who were with the Tigers last season, is “valuable to me.”

Freeze took over as head coach of the Tigers in December, making the move from Liberty University. He coached against Auburn teams while at Ole Miss and has a daughter who is an AU graduate so when he went to work on his new job he had a general idea about what to expect.

“I think Auburn is built on families, on the things that we love and the work, hard work,” Etheridge said. “(We) really have just been talking to him about things that we did in the past–the roster management, the guys that we have on the team, just recruiting footprints on what are hotspots for Auburn.”

Etheridge noted that he and Williams have been a “sounding board that he can bounce ideas off of things that the players didn't like, they did like, what can we implement to make sure we do things better.”

The defensive backs coach said he has given Freeze and the other new coaches information to help the players “buy into the culture fast,” which he noted is important. “Once they buy in, we feel like we can do some big things and that is the biggest thing nowadays is getting all these guys to buy into a team and not be so individual.

“It has been good just to be able to talk to him on planes and in the car, and just going up and down the road, talking about the Auburn family, the community and everything that goes on with the program," Etheridge added.

Etheridge will share coaching duties in the secondary with Wesley McGriff, whose primary focus will be the cornerbacks. Etheridge’s primary focus is the safeties and nickels, but both men say each will coach all aspects of secondary play this season.

The pair will take over a secondary group that returns plenty of starting experience, experienced depth and newcomers who will be pushing to play. The players are going through winter workouts prior to the start of spring practice on Feb. 27th.

“I think the biggest thing for the players at this point is they are anxious,” Etheridge said. “I mean, it's a new staff, they all want to know where they fit, where they fit for this style. I mean, Cadillac and I, we are familiar with all the guys, but at the same time it’s like they are excited about what's coming, what we are doing, and they have been enjoying the weight program. You hear all the feedback of what's been going on.”

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Etheridge noted that he is excited to see the defensive backs compete in spring drills. “I am ready to get with them. We have been on the road, we have been away from them,  we haven’t had the chance to sit down and talk to them all so they want to get to know us, they want to get to know the coaching style. Most of them know me, but a lot of new guys, transfer-wise, that don't know me, they will get a chance to know me.”

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Davis says opportunity to coach at his alma mater a pleasant surprise

Mark Murphy

4–5 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama–One of the more productive receivers to play for the Auburn football Tigers in the last decade, Marcus Davis is off to a strong start in his career as a college coach, something that got the attention of Hugh Freeze. Davis was the Tigers’ new head coach’s choice to direct the wide receivers and the former Tiger receiver said he appreciates the opportunity.

Asked if he thought that he would have the chance to be coaching receivers at his alma mater, Davis said, “I never did. I am glad to be back, to say the very least. It is a dream come true. That is why you want to do right by it and make the best of it. Just get it done.”

A four-year letterman for the Tigers from 2013-2016, who started the BCS National Championship Game vs. Florida State, Davis played in 50 games for the Tigers. He caught 83 passes and finished eighth in AU punt return career average when he graduated.

After having major success coaching receivers at the University of Hawaii, Davis took a job doing the same thing at Georgia Southern last season and was impressive enough in that role to be hired by Freeze. Davis also received thumbs up reviews from Auburn staff members who had previously worked with Davis.

“The place is special, it truly is,” Davis said. “You get more of an appreciation when you leave. Then you come back, it is special. It’s not just words, it is a feeling. That is the biggest thing I would say.”

During winter workouts and spring practice, Davis will get a much better idea about the strengths and weaknesses for the players he will be working with for the 2023 season. “We have been on the road a lot so we haven’t gotten much into that so that's really exciting for me right now as we get back and get settled, learn more about the guys, learn more about the skill sets they have and go from there.”

The Tigers are scheduled to begin spring drills on February 27th. The staff has been so focused on recruiting this is the first week the focus has shifted on preparation for spring practice.

Marcus Davis is shown in action for the Tigers. (Photo: Troy Taormina, USA TODAY Sports)

Freeze and his staff managed to salvage the recruiting class, which is ranked 17th by 247Sports. The recruiting ranking for transfer portal additions is No. 3 in the country.

“It's amazing,” Davis said of the roster repair done in such a short period. “That's a testament to Coach Freeze. That's the standard, and you know, that's the people in this building as well. We have a bunch of relentless people that are eager to make this place the best we could. That's the part with Coach Freeze, and it's a trickle-down effect to everyone on staff.”

Davis noted that his college head coach, Gus Malzahn, accurately predicted what the former wide receiver would be doing after graduation. “I remember as a player, Coach Malzahn told me I was going to be a coach,” Davis said. “I didn't believe it at the time because you are just so focused on the process of being the best player you can be.

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“When I took the time to look back on things, now that I'm sitting where I am now, I see exactly what he was saying. I am glad I chose this career. It's been good, and the best part about it is you get to pour into younger guys who have similar goals to what you have.”

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Will Robby Ashford get the Malik Willis treatment from Hugh Freeze? A breakdown of what that’d look like

Connor O'Gara

9–11 minutes

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The similarities are there.

Robby Ashford has plenty in common with a young Malik Willis. That’s Willis, AKA the guy who left Auburn after he was a third-string quarterback, but joined forces with Hugh Freeze at Liberty and became one of the top quarterback prospects in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Now, there’s hope that Ashford can be the second coming of Willis. Well, let’s rephrase that a bit.

There’s hope that with the similarities Ashford and Willis share, Freeze can get the most out of the returning Auburn starter.

Spend any time watching both and you can see the strengths. Both are physically gifted runners within the script and off-script. As guys built like modern outside linebackers, they can extend drives with their legs and because they have strong arms, ideally, you can’t just load the box and assume the offense will be entirely 1-dimensional.

Of course, the knock on Willis in his early Liberty days is exactly the knock that Ashford currently has — accuracy. In his first season as an FBS starter, Ashford failed to complete 50% of his passes. He only had 2 games with 170 passing yards for an Auburn offense that struggled to protect the quarterback and lacked receiver depth.

At the same time, he also added 710 rushing yards, nearly half of which came in the final 4 games with Cadillac Williams as the head coach. In that stretch, Auburn averaged 28.5 points per game, which was a significant uptick from the 22.9 points that Auburn averaged under Bryan Harsin in the first 8 games.

The question isn’t whether Ashford has skills to make plays in the SEC. It’s whether he can improve his weaknesses enough to be Freeze’s starter and turn into a true dual-threat quarterback instead of just an elite runner who can occasionally flash potential with his arm. Part of that will be physical, and part of that will be mental.

When Willis went on an official visit to Liberty in 2019, he spent 3 days talking ball with Freeze. Instead of talking about life on campus, they drew up plays on the white board. Freeze wanted to test Willis’ understanding of his offensive philosophy. What does he see on this read? What happens if a defense comes out in this coverage? To Freeze’s delight, Willis was a quick learner.

“I kinda knew when he was on his official visit that I could really coach this kid,” Freeze told SDS about Willis back in 2020. “I think I can be hard on him, I think I can be demanding on him and he wants to please.”

That’s one of the things that Willis grew to appreciate with Freeze. There was more of an expectation that the offense would take what was being given instead of forcing the run scheme like he experienced in Gus Malzahn’s offense at Auburn.

Where Willis’ and Ashford’s situations differ is the urgency. Due to previous NCAA transfer rules, Willis had to sit out his first season at Liberty in 2019. His waiver for immediate eligibility was denied by the NCAA, so he ran scout team and learned the Freeze offense inside and out that year. By the time Willis took over and looked the part in that first month of the 2020 season, Freeze called his decision-making strides “monumental.” Instead of going back to the drawing board after a frustrating throwing day like Louisiana-Monroe in which Willis only completed 38% of his passes for 6.1 yards per attempt, Freeze was encouraged by an off-the-charts decision-making grade.

Unless Freeze lands a transfer quarterback — pursuits of Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall and former Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders fell through — the expectation is that the job will be Ashford’s to lose in 2023. He likely won’t get a redshirt year to master Freeze’s offense. But given Ashford’s career path, live reps are crucial at this stage of his development with 3 years of eligibility left (2020 didn’t count against anyone’s eligibility for the COVID year and 2021 was a redshirt year).

“Robby’s got the tools. Robby’s got the abilities,” SEC Network analyst and former Auburn center Cole Cubelic told SDS. “The thing that a lot of folks either don’t know or didn’t look at or didn’t pay attention to was how little football he played going into last spring … he hasn’t just been a quarterback in awhile. He missed a lot of time his senior year at Hoover (Ala.). He hasn’t just been healthy for an entire year to say, ‘OK, this is yours. Go out and get better. Take all of these reps.’

“There are parts of his game that Hugh sees and probably says, ‘If we can refine that, and we can get a little more consistent here and there, we can probably work with some of this.'”

That’s certainly worth remembering with Ashford. He didn’t play a snap in his first 2 years at Oregon, where he also played baseball. His 2022 spring at Auburn was his first time getting legitimate offseason quarterback reps.

It’s one of the reasons why Ashford looked like a guy who didn’t work through a ton of progressions. According to CFB Film Room, no Power 5 quarterback threw a higher percentage of their throws on the move than Ashford at 37.9%. Heisman Trophy winner and ESPN analyst Robert Griffin III called Ashford’s first career start against Mizzou and raved about his potential, but added a blunt assessment about where he was at in his development at the time.

“When I was a freshman, I was like Robby. I wasn’t a 1-read guy. I was a half-read guy. That’s what Robby is right now,” Griffin told SDS in October. “He drops back and it’s like he’s out of the pocket. That’s what I was, but I was a very dynamic runner. Robby’s a little bigger and stronger than I was when I came through as a freshman, but I was faster, so I got away with more. Watching him throw the football, he’s definitely got the potential if he can get the coach who can really develop him as a passer like I had with Art Briles and Philip Montgomery, then I think he can turn into something extremely special.”

Little did Griffin know in October that Montgomery would become Ashford’s next offensive coordinator. Prophetic? For sure.

But as for the other part of Griffin’s proclamation — Ashford becoming something extremely special — he’s still going to need help. Willis never really got the big, physical jump-ball receiver on the outside. CJ Daniels was the closest to that. He was instead surrounded by quicker targets who could make people miss after the catch.

A pivotal part of Ashford’s development is going to be finding the right targets, which remains a question for a team with just 2 receivers back who had 300 yards in 2022.

“Receiver is the position I’m concerned about,” Cubelic said. “A quarterback like Robby Ashford who’s looking to take the next step, who is going to make mistakes, and he’s going to be inaccurate at times, you would hope that he has a couple of guys who are erasers, guys who can make him right sometimes when he’s not. I just don’t know how many of those guys Auburn has right now … I’m surprised they haven’t attacked that position a little more in the portal.”

Cubelic continued.

“You can find those guys (in the portal) Look at Juice Wells. I think he’s the best receiver coming back in the SEC and (South Carolina) got him from James Madison,” Cubelic said. “Auburn’s gotta find a guy or 2 that can just go out and make you right a lot of the time. That would be a massive step in helping Robby become one of the quarterbacks in the top half of the SEC.”

That’s the hope for the Alabama native. His progression will have a major say in whether Auburn can bounce back in Year 1 under Freeze.

In Willis’ first season as a starter with Freeze at Liberty, who made the jump to FBS in 2018, he helped the program to a No. 17 ranking in the final AP Top 25. Willis became such a difference-maker under Freeze that Coastal Carolina coach Jamey Chadwell told SDS that his team would’ve beaten Liberty by 2 touchdowns in the Cure Bowl if not for the brilliance of the Flames’ quarterback.

Willis might not be a fair bar for Ashford to live up to, but it’s ironic that at this time last year, there was an assumption that he was also the third-string quarterback at Auburn. Of course, Ashford stayed at Auburn and became QB1. But perhaps like with Willis, it’ll be Freeze’s guidance that’ll play a key role in Ashford soaring past his perceived ceiling.

The similarities are there. Maybe soon, so too will be the Freeze bump.

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