Hugh Freeze says it's too early to tell whether Auburn 'closed the gap' with top SEC programs

Hugh Freeze said it was too early to tell whether or not Auburn closed the gap with the top of the SEC. The new Tigers head coach noted that his team had improved from when he stepped foot onto campus, but there was work to be done.

Freeze did not want to put his own team down, but he didn’t want to be unrealistic either. As of now, on paper at least, it’s fair to say Auburn does not measure up to Georgia, Alabama, LSU or a school like Tennessee going into 2023.

But Freeze is ready to show the world his team and their steady improvement.

“Here’s what I really believe. I want to be careful not to — I love our team,” Freeze said at SEC Media Days. “They’re my team. They’re Auburn’s team. We’re going to coach the heck out of them. Does our roster from top to bottom look like Alabama’s, Georgia’s, LSU’s, Florida, A&M, Ole Miss? I don’t know yet. I know a couple they don’t because I’ve watched the tape.”

In fact, Freeze wouldn’t commit to saying Auburn closed the gap or not.

“Do I think we’ve improved Auburn with the additions that we’ve had since I’ve been there? Yes,” Freeze said. “Does that mean we close the gap at all? I have no clue.”

But after a tumultuous time under Bryan Harsin, Auburn might’ve righted the ship with the hiring of Freeze, the retention of now-associate head coach Cadillac Williams and the additions of recruits and transfers.

“I do know we improved Auburn, and I hope that means that we somehow close the gap enough to — if we have a good game plan, to be in some of those games in the fourth quarter and have maybe a shot to pull an upset,” Freeze said. “It’s too early for me to really say, but I do know we improved our roster. But at the same time, they’re constantly improving theirs it seems like.”

Freeze knows Auburn can be among the game’s top programs again. He also knows that his ability to get the Tigers there is going to come down to his ability to recruit.

“I do think that the ’24 and ’25 recruiting cycle will tell a large portion of my story there,” Freeze said. “I believe that. Maybe ’26. We might get three cycles, but we’ve got to start closing the gap on the elite program in the conference, and when you add Texas and Oklahoma, that only increases the competition also. But, there’s a lot of good players. They all can’t go to the same school.

“And, obviously, the transfer portal world adds another dynamic to it. How well good you are at holding onto the ones that you do have in your room, and then attracting ones that may go in and fill some holes for you, and hopefully we can be very good at that at creating a culture where our kids want to be at Auburn and want to stay at Auburn.”