Auburn first-year head coach Hugh Freeze has a rule about dancing: If you’re going to do it after a touchdown, you do it on the Auburn sideline – not in the end zone.

In fact, Freeze goes as far to invite his player to come dance with him on the sideline.

And while most players might not take Freeze up on his invitation, senior cornerback Jaylin Simpson was willing – but only if he and Freeze choreographed the dance together.

Freeze obliged.

“I’m old school a little bit, so I promised them, if you just come to the sideline, I’ll do whatever dance you want me to do and look like a fool. Let’s just do it on the sideline and do it together,” Freeze explained after the game. “That was a promise that Jaylin Simpson — he made me do some kind of little deal I probably screwed up.”

Freeze’s “little deal” was one he learned from Simpson earlier in the week after the veteran cornerback promised Freeze a turnover on Saturday.

“It was either Tuesday or Wednesday I told him I was going to bring him the ball this week, by the way. I told him that,” Simpson said. “And so we made up the dance. I told him what dance I wanted to do.”

Simpson went on to tally a pair of takeaways in Saturday’s win — the biggest of which came in the shape of a 50-yard Pick 6 in the third quarter.

And while Freeze might’ve remembered he and Simpson’s dance for the most part, that doesn’t necessarily mean his jig was any good. Simpson went on to say that if his dance was rated a 10, he’s rate Freeze’s execution a five.

But Freeze couldn’t care less about how he executed the dance move.

Instead, he hopes to keep dancing as he watches the Tigers’ defense execute Ron Roberts’ game plan – which includes a heavy emphasis on creating turnovers – while also playing a clean football game with minimal penalties.

In Saturday’s win over 59-14 win over UMass on Saturday, the Tigers did both.

“We won the turnover battle, which is a goal of ours every week,” Freeze said following the win. “And we won the penalty battle, so those are two things that we want to win every single week. When you win those two, your percentage chances of winning goes way up.”

Auburn collecting wins in both the turnover and penalty categories should be a relief to Tigers’ fans who watched their team struggle in both categories last fall.

In 2022, the Tigers averaged more than 57 penalty yards per game. On Saturday, Auburn played a game that featured just three penalties, which equaled 35 penalty yards.

In terms of the turnover battle, Auburn was abysmal last fall.

Of the 133 FBS programs in 2022, Auburn ranked 122nd in turnover margin, finishing the season 10 turnovers in the hole. While the Tigers were able to force 13 turnovers in 2022, they gave up 23 — 12 interceptions and 11 fumbles.

Thanks to Simpson’s 50-yard Pick 6 and his fumble recovery — as well as the Auburn offense’s ability to take care of the football on Saturday — the Tigers are already two turnovers in the green, which is a good foundation to build on moving forward.

On Saturday specifically, the pair of turnovers Auburn forced was an encouraging sign after its defense was punched in the mouth by a touchdown on UMass’ opening drive of the game.

And though guys like Simpson and those in the Tigers’ secondary might get the credit for Saturday’s turnovers, the first domino to fall came from the defensive front.

“I thought we got better as the game went on. We crushed the pocket some, which was very good to see,” Freeze said. “It was good to see our defense play hard. I thought we played harder than we have in the scrimmages and than we did in the first possession. I thought we started to show a little passion.”

While the season is still young, you can tell Simpson is already planning for more dance celebrations with Freeze.

“He’s got a ways to go on it, but next time we’re going to have a different dance,” Simpson said of Freeze. “We’re not even going to worry about that one. Different dance every time.”

And so long as it means the Tigers are scoring and the officials are keeping their flags in their pockets, Freeze doesn’t mind the dance parties – no matter how much of a fool he might look like.

“I’ll do that as long as they don’t do that crazy stuff on the field that might hurt us,” Freeze said.