What Hugh Freeze said to DJ James, Koy Moore after key plays in Auburnâs Iron Bowl loss
Motionless on the Auburn sideline bench for 10 minutes after the game ended, DJ James tried to grapple with the history he’d just been on the wrong end of.
Auburn’s likely NFL-bound cornerback was the one who somehow got lost in one-on-one coverage with Alabama’s Isaiah Bond Saturday night in the corner of the north endzone. He was the one who will be in every still image of Bond coming down with the catch.
And it visibly shook James. He was the last one off the field Saturday, his face still seemingly paralyzed with a look of shock and guilt.
He was guided by team captain Elijah McAllister and defensive backs coach Zac Etheridge back to the locker room. It was a somber moment for a player who had been so productive for Auburn walking off Pat Dye Field for the final time as a player — who will now have Jalen Milroe’s miracle be a central part of what his college career his remembered for no matter how well he had played for Auburn in two years in the SEC.
“Coach, I let you down,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said he remembered James saying to him at his locker. “I let you down.”
It’s a heartbreaking moment for a player and his coach. Had James and Auburn been able to make the stop on fourth-and-goal from the 31-yard line, Auburn would have won the Iron Bowl on Saturday.
But what is a coach supposed to say to his player in that moment, the words to use to console him through possibly the lowest moment in his college career? Freeze wasn’t sure if he’d ever have the right ones.
“I wish I had the words for him,” Freeze said Monday. “I tried hard. I sat with him at his locker for a while.”
Freeze said he had similar conversions with Koy Moore. He was the one who muffed the punt with just under five minutes to play in the fourth quarter which set up the eventual game-winning touchdown.
He texted with both Moore and James on Sunday, too. Freeze knows he’s still hurting over the loss and is trying to comprehend how James and Moore must feel. It’s as difficult a moment as college sports can provide.
Had Moore caught and secured the ball, Auburn’s offense would have had an opportunity to run the clock down and inch closer to an Iron Bowl win. Instead, Auburn wouldn’t get the ball back until it was miraculously trailing.
Freeze emphasized that while James will likely get a lot of the criticism, there should have been another defensive back helping him when the ball was in the air. Despite criticism for the prevent defense Auburn ran, there were eight defenders in the endzone, James should not have been alone.
At the end of his press conference Monday, Freeze didn’t get up from the podium until he emphasized that while the muffed punt and Bond touchdown will get the blame in Auburn’s loss, there were several other moments in the game where Auburn could have made plays that would have given it a better chance to win the game, and didn’t.
“It’s not just him, even though he’s feeling the weight of it,” Freeze said Monday. “He felt that because of not only that play, but the one right before half when we were up 14-10. He didn’t get the call and gave them a long TD pass there. He felt the weight of the world on him. I just told him we’d get through it: ‘We love you. We’ll get through it together. And somehow in time, if handled right, it makes us stronger.’”
Social media has been a storm of blame toward James, Moore, Freeze and many more players or coaches around Auburn’s program. As a head coach, Freeze said he wants to take that blame on himself, and not put it on the players.
There’s much blame to be passed around. Auburn was 43 seconds away from winning the Iron Bowl before Milroe launched a prayer into the east Alabama night sky.
And while James and Moore appear to have taken the blame on themselves — and it’s understandable why — Freeze is trying to care for them, and shield them.
“This world can be brutal, Freeze said. “I get it on coaches. They’re going to be brutal on me and every decision that I make, good or bad. Everybody’s got the answer and what they would do. I get that for coaches. You hate to see it when young men, who are playing a game, get attacked. I hate that. I think those people are – well, I just think those people need to get a life and a perspective. No one hurt more than Koy and DJ.”
Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]