Freeze: 'I'm very comfortable' with Nix

When Hugh Freeze walks into offensive meetings now, the Auburn coach feels a calm, a comfortability surrounding him that escaped him during his first season on the Plains.

Comfortability is a word that has been thrown around a lot since Freeze hired Derrick Nix as offensive coordinator away from Ole Miss. The two put together some of the top offenses in the SEC during their five years together in Oxford and are now in charge of doing the same at Auburn. Already, the sense of familiarity is helping not only Freeze but the Tigers' offense as a whole.

"I think he is very comfortable with me, and I'm very comfortable with him," Freeze said on Thursday. "The verbiage is the same, and I don't think he has to wonder, 'Hey, what coach really expects with this.'"

That wasn't the case last season when Freeze brought in Philip Montgomery and, for the first time in his career, handed the keys to someone else on offense. Montgomery has had successful offenses in the past, but he and Freeze never seemed to get on the same page regarding terminology and philosophy. Auburn's offense suffered partly due to that, with quarterback play being erratic while the struggles at wide receiver continued.

Bringing in more talent at receiver and an improved offensive line will definitely help Payton Thorne, but so will the fact that Freeze, Nix and quarterbacks coach Kent Austin are all on the same page. The progress is already showing up in fall camp.

"I was just sitting in his meeting with he (Nix) and Kent in there and listening and trying not to talk too much and let them talk," Freeze said. "But he's saying exactly what he should be saying. If you're talking about this concept screen and seeing it the exact way I see it and telling that to the players, it just gives me this. I don't know; I have a fuzzy feeling that this is exactly what I would have said.

"That's what we're getting in Derrick Nix."