Hugh Freeze addresses negative recruiting, top-down alignment at Auburn

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — What’s the biggest surprise Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze has encountered since arriving on the Plains?

Well, that’s probably a loaded question, but Freeze did his best to answer it on Tuesday at SEC Media Days.

“I don’t want to be negative, it was off from what I believe an Auburn roster should look like,” Freeze said at SEC Media Days on Tuesday. “Recruiting has been a little more challenging than I thought for Auburn because what I believe Auburn should be, and what it’s proven it can be…there’s a lot of things we battled in recruiting that I don’t think are true any longer. They may have been before, I wasn’t here, I don’t know.”

Following his arrival, Freeze and Co. managed to finish with the 17th-ranked recruiting class nationally for 2023, good for eighth in the SEC. In 2022, the class finished 16th nationally and sixth in the SEC according to the On3 Sports Consensus team rankings. In 2021, the class finished 21st nationally and eighth in the SEC. And in 2020, the class finished 7th nationally and fifth in the SEC.

And unfortunately for the 2021 class, only four players remain on the roster just two years later after 17 players have transferred out of the program.

And as for the “alignment” question that’s often asked and bantered about around Auburn athletics, Freeze wanted to make something clear.

“We have a brand-new president, and that president has a brand-new athletic director, and that athletic director and that president chose a new head football coach. We’re as aligned as we could ever be,” Freeze said. “It’s amazing sometimes, I know they’re getting it from coaches or something, ‘we just hear y’all aren’t aligned there.’ We just got here! We couldn’t be more aligned. We’re going to ride this bus together. That’s probably it. I think Auburn can be great, obviously, and we will be.”

Hugh Freeze acknowledges Auburn football is a ‘work in progress’

The Auburn football program is very much a work in progress. Freeze knows that better than most.

Through the NCAA Transfer Portal, 20 new players have arrived and 19 have left. In addition, the Tigers signed 22 players in the 2023 recruiting class. Roster turnover across college football is at an all-time high and it’s no different at Auburn.

“That’s the challenge. I don’t even know all the names, truthfully,” Freeze said during SEC Media Days on Tuesday. “We’re going to have to wear tape on our helmet again, we’ve recruited kids after spring practice, I haven’t coached them or been with them a whole lot. It would be hard to say I know them, or they know me.

“I’ve never felt quite like this. I’m going to have to lean on our assistant coaches to help capture their hearts and minds. You come in as a transfer and you expect to play, but that isn’t going to be true for every single person. Yet, we’re going to need everyone in that team room to be of one mind and one accord.”

Within the last few weeks, Freeze traveled to the mountains, something he says he does every year. The purpose centered around Freeze developing a “teaching” plan for the next year. He hopes that helps reset things, as he’s been running ragged since being hired on November 30, 2022.

Immediately, the focus was hiring a staff, while salvaging a recruiting class. Then, it was starting spring camp at the end of February. After spring camp? More transfer portal moves before having time in the summer to try and reset.

Freeze said “tunnel vision” will be paramount to Auburn’s immediate success.

“There is no skirting the issue, that’s a big challenge for us to formulate a team from so many different, new faces in a short amount of time,” Freeze said. “Our program is work in progress. I’m ok with that, and (the players) have to be ok with that. I’m not a big goal setter. I believe on focusing on what we can do today to get better. If we can stay there, then hopefully from game one to 12, there’s considerable improvement.”

As for expectations, Freeze understands the dynamic. Auburn football recently announced the largest season ticket sell-out in the history of the athletic department. Fans are optimistic. On the flip side, most predictions place the Tigers near the bottom of the SEC West in Freeze’s first season.

“My expectations are for us to play a passionate, 60-minute football game every Saturday,” Freeze said. “Hopefully it’s fundamentally sound where we give our kids a chance to win games in the fourth quarter. I don’t set a goal on where we’re going to finish in the West. Man, can we just play well today at practice. Then tomorrow at practice, and see where that a puts us.

“I can see why they have us all over the place, I really do. We can’t control that, but we can control how we prepare fo the opportunities we’re going to be given. We’re going to be given 12 opportunities and I guess seven are at home, and with Jordan-Hare, we can make that more difficult. What we do with those and how we prepare is what really matters.”