The season opener against UMass may not have been the best test, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said as much.

This was the first time he put his plan to let offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery take the lead calling plays into practice. Freeze would have a role, but Montgomery led the way.

Auburn’s 59 points Saturday in the win over UMass and nearly 300 rushing yards were the product of an offense that dominated lesser competition.

But that didn’t mean many strenuous situations for Auburn’s play calling duo.

“It was easy Saturday,” Freeze said Monday of the play-calling balance with Montgomery. “You just kind of looked at the call sheet, and the things we had planned we called. They tended to work in the run game. I don’t think it was a great test for us, truthfully.”

Passing off play calling duties dates back to SEC Media Days. In Nashville, Freeze said that he used to be one of the better play-callers in the country. Freeze is known as an offensive coach, and it was his success calling plays and developing offenses that landed him his first head coaching jobs. In previous head coaching stops, Freeze called plays.

But he said he doesn’t think he’s as good as he used to be, so he brought in Montgomery — who was formerly offensive coordinator at Baylor and later led productive offenses as the head coach at Tulsa — to take that duty off his plate.

Or mostly off Freeze’s plate. He said he wanted to still make sure he could hop in and call plays either with or in place of Montgomery if he had the hot hand.

“I certainly reserve the right to jump in at any time and say, ‘I’ve got a good feeling right now, let me help a little bit,’” Freeze said in Nashville in July. “There’s also gonna be suggestions from a lot of other people, including me. And he knows that. But he’s challenged with calling them.”

But as Freeze said Monday, UMass wasn’t the best game to put that plan to the test. Auburn’s offense was never truly challenged.

Auburn had 12 drives against UMass, scoring on eight of them. That includes scoring on the first five drives of the game and six of the first seven drives. Auburn’s first punt came four seconds before halftime. It only had one other punt for the rest of the game and that came after Auburn had begun putting backups in.

Whatever Montgomery or Freeze called seemed to work with ease. Auburn has six passing plays that picked up 15 or more yards — highlighted by a 33-yard Payton Thorne pass to Ja’Varrius Johnson to put Auburn on the UMass two-yard-line as well as a 29-yard pass to wide-open Jay Fair over the middle in the endzone.

Auburn also had seven running plays of more than 10 yards including a 40+ yard rushing score from Jeremiah Cobb and Sean Jackson. Freeze and Montgomery’s utilization of quarterback Robby Ashford in the redzone worked seamlessly as he went on to score on the ground three times.

“It was because the run game is working,” Freeze said Monday. “You thought you have control of it, but really it was me every now and then saying, ‘Let me see us seven-man protect, five-man protect.’ It was smooth. I think as the games get more challenging; how do we operate then? I have no worries. Neither one of us have any ego about it, so let’s figure out what we can do to help our team win.”

Cal may not be the biggest challenge on Auburn’s schedule, that’s going to come down the road in SEC play. Nor is it the loudest stadium Auburn will run its offense in on the road this season.

But it’s a better chance to test the balance of calling plays between Freeze and Montgomery. In a game that is expected to be closer than the Week 1 blowout — most sportsbooks favor Auburn by fewer than 10 points — Freeze may have to battle more with how much he wants to pass off the responsibility to Montgomery.

Freeze didn’t describe how many plays Montgomery called compared to himself in the UMass game. But that’s a back and forth which will likely change over time.

When Auburn kicks off against Cal at 9:30 p.m. CT/7:30 p.m. PT on ESPN, it will be another chance for Freeze and Montgomery to refine how they will run the offense. It isn’t likely to be the game where they find all the answers.

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