Auburn first-year head coach Hugh Freeze has coached against UMass in each of the past four seasons — that’s four more times than Auburn football has ever battled the Minutemen of Amherst.

While Auburn will be seeing UMass for the first time in program history on Saturday, the Minutemen were a frequent opponent of the Liberty Flames, who Freeze coached from 2019-22. During that time, Freeze stood on the opposite sideline of UMass head coach Don Brown just once.

“I played them every year the last four years. And I saw drastic improvement under coach Brown,” Freeze said in his Week 1 press conference Monday morning. “I have great respect for him.”

In 2022, when Brown returned to UMass – a place he was head coach from 2004-08 – he took over a program that had gone 1-11 and fired its coach midway through the season prior.

But the struggles of the 2021 season were just scratching the surface.

Brown also inherited a program that had gone 2-26 over the course of three seasons under his predecessor, Walt Bell.

And after one full season last fall and a 41-30 road win over New Mexico State on Saturday, Brown has already matched Bell’s win total in just 13 games.

“I thought they looked quite different,” Freeze said. “And New Mexico State’s not an easy place to go play. I thought they took care of the football. They didn’t turn it over. They got turnovers. They capitalized on turnovers. They threw the ball effectively, which they have not done in the four years that I’ve played them.”

Like the Tigers, the Minutemen are starting a transfer at quarterback.

Georgia Tech transfer Taisun Phommachanh got the nod as UMass’ starter and capitalized on his first opportunity against New Mexico State, passing for 192 yards on a 10-for-17 passing effort, while adding 96 yards and a touchdown with his legs.

“Offensively, the quarterback makes a huge difference,” Freeze said. “And Simpson and Johnson, those two transfer receivers, I think are really talented and explosive. So we’ve got our hands full. I believe that.”

But anyone who knows a thing or two about a Brown-coached team — which Freeze does — knows it’s the defensive side of the football that might present an opposing team the most challenges.

“I think he’s one of the best defensive play callers in the country,” Freeze said of Brown. “Last year their record was atrocious and they had a Top 10 defense in the country.”

Like the season before his arrival, Brown and the Minutemen finished 2022 with a record of 1-11. But UMass’ defense also ranked No. 9 nationally in fewest passing yards allowed.

The Minutemen defense also ranked No. 54 in total defense and 113th against the run. Which, for a team that ranks dead last at No. 133 in many outlets’ FBS rankings, isn’t all that bad.

Senior linebacker Jerry Roberts Jr., redshirt sophomore defensive end Marcus Bradley and junior cornerback Jordan Mahoney all “jump off the page”, Freeze says. And them, paired with a dynamic defensive front, makes UMass’ defense a tough riddle to solve.

“You combine that with Coach Brown’s system, which is very chaotic and very hard to identify for your offensive front at times, they will create negative plays with that,” Freeze said.

“That was a big challenge for us last year when we played them up at UMass. They created a lot of negative plays against us. We managed to score enough points to win the game, but it was a challenge. And so they have our full attention.”

Considering Freeze is an offensive-minded guy, when he meets his match defensively, he doesn’t forget it and it digs at him a bit.

As such, film from last year’s Liberty-UMass game, which the Flames won 42-24, has received a lot of attention from Freeze.

“He gave me fits last year, and I’ve watched that game a lot of times,” Freeze said. “We scored 42 points and it felt like it was 12. It was hard.

“We’ve got more studying to do today to make sure we’re — but there’s going to be some negative plays. The whole deal is trying to confuse the O-line, and they’re effective with that. We’ve just got to make sure they’re effective with that at a small percentage.”

The Tigers are set to kick off their 2023 campaign against the visiting Minutemen (1-0) on Saturday at 2:30 CT from Jordan-Hare Stadium.