Hugh Freeze reacts to ‘humbling,’ ‘frustrating’ season at Auburn

Auburn losing to Alabama in the Iron Bowl means their 2024 season is over. A final record of 5-7 is not going to place them in a bowl game. Hugh Freeze was hoping for more this year but finished with a second consecutive losing record during his time on the Plains.

When asked to describe the season, Freeze used two words — “Humbling” and “frustrating.” Even so, the Auburn head coach believes there were lessons learned inside the locker room bigger than on-field results. Freeze is hoping to set his players up for moments bigger than football and still believes they will have memories from this year.

“Humbling, frustrating, some of those words,” Freeze described the season. “But yet, I’m big on not getting your identity from a scoreboard and I want our players to understand that because they get talked about. I sign up for it. But I don’t think, 20 years from now, they’re going to think the wins and losses we had. I know that’s not the world we win in…

“Ultimately, I hope they become true Auburn men in life, first and foremost. I know lessons like we learned this year can help with that because life’s not fair sometimes and it hits you hard. We’ve had some experiences with that. You can say it’s humbling, frustrating.”

Frustrations began early and came often for Auburn, dating back to the Cal matchup. Payton Thorne threw four interceptions and saw the Tigers lose a nonconference game many expected them to win. Freeze made a switch over to Hank Brown but after six quarters and a few more interceptions, Thorne was back out there.

Just two SEC wins wound up on the schedule. The year’s high was undoubtedly upsetting Texas A&M in front of the Jordan-Hare Stadium home crowd in the penultimate week of the regular season. A road game against Kentucky was the other SEC victory Auburn managed.

Freeze will get back to the drawing board this offseason, hoping to bring in more talent. High school recruiting has been Freeze’s main focus since taking over the program. Hitting the NCAA transfer portal should be a priority as well.

Better results were certainly hoped for during 2024. But Freeze believes some of the lessons learned throughout the year will wind up helping players in the long run.