Lane Kiffin pokes fun at Auburn play-calling structure, asks who decides fourth down

This week, Auburn coaches indicated a unique play-calling structure in place. Derrick Nix calls first down while Kent Austin takes care of third down, and Hugh Freeze can overrule at any time.

It’s shaping up to be a group effort. When he saw it come across his timeline, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin poked fun at the strategy.

Kiffin wondered if there was a fourth coach on staff to take care of fourth down. He also tagged Auburn Football in the post as he continues to showcase his sense of humor on social media.

Nix spoke with reporters about the collaboration on play-calling and the coaches’ different responsibilities. He also made it clear Freeze has the ability to step in if there’s something he doesn’t liek or wants to change.

“I try to do a good job on first-and-10, drive-starters. Kent does our third downs,” Nix said, via AL.com’s Peter Rauterkus. “Head coach has the authority to overrule anything we say or do.”

When he first arrived at Auburn in 2023, Freeze opted to let Philip Montgomery handled play-calling duties. But the head coach took those responsibilities back after Montgomery’s departure, and Auburn’s offense took a leap forward.

The Tigers went from averaging 351.2 yards per game in 2023 to 429.4 yards in 2024. Their points per game, however, only saw a slight increase from 26.2 to 27.8 – ranking in the bottom half of the SEC both seasons.

Auburn took other steps to overhaul the offense this year, though. The program most notably brought in Oklahoma transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold from the transfer portal while also bringing in Georgia Tech transfer Eric Singleton to join a receiver room headlined by rising sophomore Cam Coleman.

Those additional playmakers are sure to be front and center as Auburn looks to turn things around after last year’s 5-7 record. In fact, SEC Network host Paul Finebaum said he’s high on the Tigers this year and said there’s plenty of positivity around the program.

“I’m pretty high. And I was in Alabama all weekend and I heard some of the same things that everybody else was hearing,” Finebaum said this week on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “You said the word – vibe. What you want right now, two and a half weeks before the first game? You want positivity. You don’t want concern. You don’t want a lot of negative thoughts coming into your mind. Quite frankly, I think a lot of things are tilting in Auburn’s direction.”