Hugh Freeze feels 'awful' for Auburn fans after Music City Bowl loss to Maryland

Auburn faithful came to Nashville and showed immense support for Hugh Freeze and the Tigers during the Music City Bowl against the Maryland Terrapins.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, it didn’t make much of a difference. From the get-go, Maryland was the better team, and in the end the Terrapins captured a 31-13 victory over the SEC program.

Freeze wasn’t happy with anyone’s performance on Auburn’s side. Afterwards, he apologized to the program’s fanbase, letting them know it starts with him, and they’re going to get it fixed.

“I don’t need anyone to tell me when we don’t measure up. That starts with me,” Freeze started. “I feel so awful for our incredible fans. It was incredible to see them, their support for us, and to not perform any better in games this year like this. I promise you that — I don’t need someone to tell me I didn’t get it done.

“I think our staff and our young men, starting with our staff, starting with me, have got to create a standard of the way we consistently work, consistently compete, and figure out how to be a true team. That is my goal in 2024, and I’ll need these two to help me and the staff to help me, but it’s disappointing today for our incredible fans and our support from our administration that we didn’t perform any better. Congrats to Coach Locksley. They came prepared and certainly outplayed us.”

Alas, it was Auburn’s offense that disappointed a ton during the game. The 13 points for Auburn were the second-lowest total for their first season under Freeze, and they crawled to 300 yards of total offense inside Nissan Stadium.

That performance included only three conversions on 17 third-down attempts, as well as four total turnovers with two interceptions and a pair of lost fumbles.

Maryland raced out to a 21-0 lead over the Tigers, as the Terrapins were able to get started hot and never look back against Auburn, especially after the first quarter with the Tiger offense struggling like it did.

Of their 300 yards, just 76 of them came on the ground for an average of just 2.2 per rush for Auburn. That was something that Freeze noted as an issue, whether due to the schemes or the offensive line. Compound that with a so-so day from three quarterbacks and that only added to their offensive misfire.

After earning a 6-4 record, Auburn closed the season with a whimper with a three-game losing streak. That leaves a lot to be desired, especially in the form of adjustments on offense, as the Tigers now head into the offseason.

Time will tell where Hugh Freeze takes the Tigers, but he’s going to be hoping performances like the Music City Bowl last weekend are few and far between moving forward.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this article.