Hugh Freeze reveals Bruce Pearl's impact through coaching search, how he'll lean on him

Hugh Freeze is stepping into a volatile situation as Auburn head football coach. The program is in a bit of turmoil having just fired a second-year coach while making a new hire that is receiving a lot of backlash from folks in the college football world. That new coach, Hugh Freeze, knows the team needs to build a better culture to move past a forgettable era of Tiger football. His role model in that regard? The guy just down the street in head basketball coach Bruce Pearl.

Pearl arrived at a terrible Auburn hoops program with a tarnished reputation, but was able to build a new culture and new brand both for the basketball program and himself. Freeze is in a similar spot. Like Pearl, he also left an SEC job unceremoniously and has to rebuild his own image as well as the program he’s taking over. So the two have stricken up a bit of a relationship, with Freeze marveling at how well Coach Pearl has done in curating a great culture within Auburn hoops.

Freeze spoke at length this week about the job Pearl has done and how he’s become a model for him as he starts his tenure with Auburn football. Here were those full comments:

Hugh Freeze on Bruce Pearl and creating a culture

“So the Auburn family here and the Auburn players, they’ve heard enough of what’s not right and what’s not going right and why we’re not winning and and what the issues might be and how we’re going to select a new head coach and all that. They’ve heard all of those things. But it really doesn’t matter what anyone says. It matters what we say to ourselves in that team room. That’s what matters.

“Coach Pearl, I don’t know if he’s here, but Coach Pearl, the job he’s done here — I’m going to be just like Bruce Pearl, except I’m not taking my shirt off at all, because I don’t look as good as he does. But this guy is teaching a masterclass in how to get people to buy into a culture. And I look forward to spending time with him. He’s been an incredible encourager to me through this whole process. I have no idea how involved he was or not. But I’m just telling you, everybody I would talk to around said…”man,Bruce Pearl, Bruce Pearl, Bruce Pearl.” And I’m like, “hey Bruce what’s up?” you know. And man, he would never say anything other than just encourage, man, just encourage. So I see why people are so attracted to it, and he wins obviously.

“But man, attitude. I guarantee his team talks to themselves differently than whatever the media may say or whatever the outside world may say. It doesn’t matter. It really matters about what we believe about us in the Auburn team room. Mental toughness, we must have it. It’s the secret sauce.”

There you have it. All about the mental toughness, according to Auburn head coaches Bruce Pearl and Hugh Freeze.