Camden Brown felt like he was back at St. Thomas Aquinas when Auburn took the field for spring practice at the end of February.

The sophomore wide receiver was transported back in time a couple years as first-year head coach Hugh Freeze and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery started to install their offensive philosophy — a stylistic shift from the offense of former head coach Bryan Harsin. The Tigers were moving from a pro-style system to a more up-tempo, spread offense under the new regime, a move Brown was more than happy to embrace.

“Going back to last year, I had never been in a huddle before,” Brown said. “It’s kind of weird because it was slowing down my play. I love going faster and faster and faster every day.”

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Speed has been an emphasis of Auburn’s offense in its first spring under Freeze, as the Tigers’ new coach looks to usher in a new, exciting era of offense on the Plains after multiple years of underwhelming production on that side of the ball. Freeze’s rise from high school coach to hotshot SEC play-caller, along with his revival at Liberty the last four seasons, were in large part to his offensive prowess with a modern, up-tempo system that kept defenses on their heels.

Now Freeze is teaming up with Montgomery to bring that style of play to Auburn and rejuvenate the Tigers’ offense.

“That tempo, it’s something different,” offensive lineman Jeremiah Wright said. “That’s something we get into now just getting in shape and stuff because it’s a fast tempo. It catches defenses off guard so it’s something new I’m looking forward to.”

It’s an aspect that was often lacking for Auburn under the previous coaching staff. In Harsin’s first season, Auburn’s offense averaged 71.8 plays per game against FBS opponents, which was 49th in the country, according to TeamRankings.com data. Last season, that number was just 69.5 plays per game, which was 77th nationally and ninth among SEC teams. The Tigers typically found success within their 2-minute offense, but too often slowed things down or stalled out because of an inability to get that initial first down.

“At some times when we started going fast we were getting them, and when we started going slow we were giving them rest,” Brown said.

During Freeze’s four seasons at Liberty, the Flames averaged 71.8 (2019), 75.7 (2020), 72.7 (2021) and 71.9 (2022) plays per game against FBS opponents. In that same four-year span, Montgomery’s Tulsa offenses never averaged fewer than 73.5 plays per game (last season) and ran as many as 82.2 plays per game in 2019, which was the second most among FBS teams that year. Now the two are melding their systems to produce a coherent system at Auburn.

Those numbers give an idea of the type of speed Freeze and Montgomery hope to play with at Auburn, which has been apparent in practices during the pace periods the offense runs each day. During those drills, the offense quickly works the ball downfield with a sense of urgency between snaps. Even the organized team celebrations in the end zone after finishing drives has been done with haste.

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“If you bust a long run, you’ve got to know to take it back to the hash and put it down so you don’t waste time getting back on the ball and running the next play,” running back Damari Alston said. “It’s way faster and gets you tired, but that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing. We’re getting in shape for the season where we’re going to be wearing out defenses.”

Of course, the aforementioned snap-counts and pace periods of practice don’t provide a full picture of Auburn’s offensive philosophy under Freeze and Montgomery. To both veteran play-callers, an up-tempo offense isn’t just about going full throttle all the time; it’s about knowing how to control the pace of the game. As Montgomery explained before the start of spring practices, that could mean running five plays in quick succession and then slowing things down before hitting the gas again to keep the defense off-balance.

“I think Coach and I have the same philosophy now because there’s going to be opportunities where we want to call like our hairs on fire, and there’s going to be other opportunities where we want to be able to control the tempo,” Montgomery said. “…Yes, we want to play with tempo, but we also want to control the tempo with how we play.”

It’s all part of the evolution of offenses in college football. Back when Freeze and Montgomery were first making names for themselves as play-callers, fewer teams were emphasizing up-tempo approaches on offense. It was “used as a weapon,” as Montgomery put it. That has changed in recent years, with more and more teams speeding things up, which has led to defenses adapting accordingly in that same timeframe.

That’s why Freeze and Montgomery aren’t just emphasizing the speed of their offense as they install it this spring; they’re trying to strike the right balance between a fast-paced attack and one that can dictate the tempo of the game. It’s a change in philosophy that Auburn’s players have had to adjust to this spring, but one they’re hoping pays dividends come fall.

“I like a good mix of everything, so I’m pretty easy to please with all that,” tight end Luke Deal said. “I like the idea of having defenses tired and rolling up-tempo and just keeping defenses on their toes. That’s just what you’ve got to do in this league, and I think you’ll do a good job of it.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.