This is exactly what Hugh Freeze said he didn’t want to happen.

Back in July, when all he had to wear was a sports coat and stand in front of a microphone at SEC Media Days in Nashville, Tennessee, Freeze told a group of local media members that he hired offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery to call the plays.

He gave the same talking point in his session with local reporters as well as his podium address in the conference’s main hall: He said he used to think he was an elite play caller, but doesn’t feel that way anymore.

“I have to look at myself with that,” Freeze said in July. “While I still believe in our system, I think there’s so many dynamics going on in the college game right now to rebuild Auburn, that it was very, very beneficial to get someone who has done it at a high level and has the capacity to do that. The game plan is formed by a lot of people. And I will be involved in that.”

At that point, Freeze said he still reserved the right to jump in to call plays when he felt he had the hot hand. But he wanted to focus on being a CEO, of sorts, and handling all the steps it was going to take to rebuild Auburn.

Five games into the season, that hasn’t quite worked out. That meant in Auburn’s biggest game of the season to date — a 27-20 loss to No. 1 Georgia — Freeze had significantly more authority in calling plays.

“I was really active in the plan,” Freeze said after the loss. “I approved every call that was on the call sheet.”

Freeze was very active on the sideline with his play call sheet and shouting out signals to the offense — far more so than any of Auburn’s previous games.

In offensive struggles against Cal and Texas A&M, Freeze never jumped in like he seemed to imply back in July. After barely beating Cal, Freeze said he only called a handful of plays, but those did include the game-winning touchdown pass on a fade route to tight end Rivaldo Fairweather.

Against Texas A&M, Freeze said Auburn didn’t run any of the run-pass-option plays that are central to his own offensive scheme. In turn, Auburn had its worst offensive performance of the year a week ago in College Station, Texas.

That caused, or maybe forced, Freeze to be more involved this week. It meant sacrificing time to recruit on maybe Auburn’s biggest recruiting weekend of the season — time he was hoping back in July that he’d have now because he hired Montgomery to call plays.

Freeze either called or served as a rubber stamp on every offensive play call based on his statement at the postgame press conference.

And Auburn may have had — at least considering the circumstances — its best offensive performance of the season under that shift in responsibilities.

Auburn put up 307 yards against the best team in the nation after barely cracking 200 yards against Texas A&M. That total included 219 rushing yards and averaging 5.1 yards per carry.

Freeze’s offense realized it had enough speed to beat Georgia running the ball to the perimeter so it got the ball out there as much as it could. Whether it was runs by the quarterbacks or running backs, Auburn had Georgia on the ropes because of its running game.

Quarterback Payton Thorne led Auburn with 92 rushing yards. Running back Jarquez Hunter had 59 and Brian Battie had 35. Quarterback Robby Ashford added 33 more.

Under Freeze’s expanded role, Auburn still was not able to establish a passing game. Throne and Ashford combined to throw for fewer than 100 yards. Thorne had 82 passing yards.

Freeze has often been known as a top quarterback developer, but through five games, he has not found that success so far. It’s a combination of factors that have led to those difficulties, with play calling likely among them.

For Auburn to find more success on offense in this new setup — relatively speaking, at least — it does beg some questions about Montgomery’s role going forward.

Battie said it is still Auburn’s offensive coordinator with a leadership role in practice.

“Coach Montgomery has still been running practices and calling plays,” Battie said. “I mean, Coach Freeze is always there in practice since fall camp. He’ll call his own plays every now and then but Coach (Montgomery), he’s still running the show.”

The bye week comes at a good time for Auburn. It’s got a lot on offense to sort out.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]