Hugh Freeze jokes about Nick Saban 'rubbing in' retirement life
Auburn coach Hugh Freeze is hard at work ironing out some kinks that emerged in his program during his first year in charge, and while doing so he’s taken some unexpected shrapnel from a former colleague.
Freeze was explaining to a reporter that he’s still in the process of perfecting his staff when he revealed that former Alabama coach Nick Saban is definitely enjoying his retirement.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever taken over a program where in Year 1 I felt like I got everything right on the hires,” Freeze said. “I think it’s very difficult. I was talking to Nick this morning about that. It’s funny, Nick calls me a lot now. And he rubs in that he’s playing golf every single day.”
Freeze will surely take that trade-off, having to stomach the occasional Saban call from the golf course in exchange for not having to face him on the opposite sideline anymore. And Freeze was one of the more successful coaches against Saban.
Still, the former Alabama head man rolled through the SEC for decades. It’s the dawn of a new era in the conference, one where parity might reign a bit more supreme.
Of course, just about every program in the league will also be hoping this is their chance to rise to the top and fill in the void left by Saban’s departure.
To that end, Freeze simply has to get his staff right. It’s been a year.
“But it’s just you’re in such a hurry and I think it always has taken me a little time to just get the building exactly like I wanted, and we are excited about the comfort level,” Hugh Freeze said.
One of his recent hires, in particular, has been hailed as a slam dunk.
“Will Redmond, I think’s a star,” Freeze said. “He blew me away in his interview, and he’s already adding great value to being in there. We still have a few more hires to make and I assure you they’ll probably be people I’m comfortable with.”
The Redmond hire is certainly a big one for the Tigers, who are looking to him to serve in a capacity similar to a general manager. His job will be to help manage the roster, from recruiting to the transfer portal.
Hugh Freeze is welcoming the extra hand.
“It is different, but I need help with that. I do,” he said. “I cannot, you’ve got to have somebody you completely trust to help us build the roster and then manage it, whether it’s the NIL discussions or whatever the discussions are. I really need some help with that to take some of that off my plate. Got a guy that I have great trust in that can do it.”