Hugh Freeze tried warning us.

After a “depth chart” was released prior to his press conference on Monday afternoon, Freeze essentially said the paper it was printed of would’ve been better used as fire starter.

“I’m going to be totally candid with you: I don’t even have a depth chart, so I don’t know where that came from,” Freeze said. “I don’t do depth charts. It’s really nonsense.”

The depth chart – if you want to call it that – released Monday featured 64 different names.

And while few would’ve expected Freeze and the Tigers to field anywhere near that many players in Saturday’s season-opening 59-14 win over UMass.

But Auburn did and then some as 68 different Tigers took the field against the Minutemen, all while having a handful of guys not available to play Saturday.

Part of Freeze’s reasoning for giving so many different guys play time was because he wanted his players to have the opportunity to have the same experience he did on Saturday —performing in front of Jordan-Hare Stadium’s record-breaking crowd, which featured a lot of family and f riends.

“It’s valuable because their parents are here, and their girlfriends are here and they practice their tail off and there’s no guarantee they get any snaps,” said Freeze, who had more family members present in his Auburn debut than any other game he’s ever coached in.

That reason was awfully cute and noble of him, but Freeze’s decision to play so many players certainly had some Xs and Os backing, too.

Perhaps the only starter Freeze and the Tigers explicitly named heading into the season-opener was junior quarterback Payton Thorne, who was appointed as Auburn’s starter on Aug. 17 – putting an end to a lengthy three-man quarterback race.

And while Thorne indeed started Saturday’s game, he was far from the only quarterback to take snaps for the Tigers. And it wasn’t because Thorne was relieved after the game was already well in hand – Auburn used its “backup quarterback” during the Tigers’ second possession.

Then again, maybe Auburn doesn’t have a “backup quarterback”. Instead, maybe it’s got two – and maybe even three – quarterbacks who compliment each other well.

That certainly looked to be the case as Robby Ashford earned himself the nickname “Redzone Robby” against UMass after rushing for a trio of touchdowns – making him Auburn’s leading scorer on Saturday.

“You get to see two kinds of different playing styles,” Thorne said after Saturday’s win, which saw him pass for 141 yards and a touchdown. “I don’t think I’m like a pro-style statute back there, I can move around too, but obviously Robby is really athletic so you get to see some different things.”

And there was plenty of seeing different things against the Minutemen.

Accompanying the three quarterbacks that saw action on Saturday were five different running backs as Damari Alston, Jeremiah Cobb, Brian Battie, Sean Jackson and Justin Jones all had a hand in Auburn’s rush attack, which tallied 297 yards in the win.

Mind you, junior running back Jarquez Hunter — who is believed to be Auburn’s main guy in the backfield — wasn’t available against UMass. He’s one more running back the Tigers will eventually have at their disposal.

The depth of Auburn’s running back room has been a hot topic throughout the offseason.

Running backs coach and associate head coach Cadillac Williams went as far as to say this year’s running back room was the deepest he’d seen it since returning to The Plains as a coach in 2019.

Freeze certainly doesn’t mind it.

“That’s a great problem to have. You keep them fresh and you hope they keep pounding,” Freeze said. “But, you know, you’re never gonna get all of them as many carries as they want, but it’s a good problem to have. I wish we had that problem at every room.”

From top to bottom, Auburn might not have another position group as talented as its running backs.

But the Tigers have depth in other areas and Freeze was sure to put that on display Saturday.

While only five offensive linemen can start the game, there’s not a cap on how many you can rotate in. On Saturday, the Tigers fielded 13 different guys on the offensive line.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the offensive side of the football, seven different guys lined up at tight end and nine different guys took snaps at wide receiver.

“We’ve got five running backs that can go, we’ve got two quarterbacks that can go — really three when you add Holden (Geriner). You got three quarterbacks who can go. We got about 10, 11 receivers that can go. Five, six tight ends. We got depth,” Ashford said.

“I feel like that’s going to play to our advantage how we want to play. I look at it as just, man, we got athletes, we got guys.”

And it doesn’t end with the offense.

Freeze and the Tigers called on 31 different players to fill the defense’s 11 positions in Saturday’s win — nine different defensive linemen, three different Jack linebackers, seven different inside linebackers and 12 different defensive backs.

“In this league, you’re going to need everybody,” said Auburn Jack linebacker Elijah McAllister. “You don’t know what can happen throughout the course of the season, so we’re going to need everybody and the young guys getting experience helps them in the long run. Not only for the future but for the immediate course of the season.”