Hugh Freeze was too sick to travel with Auburn to Kentucky, still expected to coach

The Auburn football team made the trip to Lexington on Friday without their head coach. Pete Thamel reports Hugh Freeze missed the flight while dealing with an illness, most likely food poisoning.

Despite the setback, Freeze plans on hopping on a jet this morning to make it in time for tonight’s game against Kentucky. Kickoff is at 7:45 pm EST on the SEC Network.

ESPN’s Chris Low spoke with Freeze this morning. “He said ‘Heck yeah’ when I asked him if he were going to be able to coach tonight against Kentucky. Freeze has been fighting severe nausea and is flying to Lexington today.”

His Auburn team is desperate for its first win in SEC play and Freeze isn’t one to let any ailment keep him from coaching his team.

A couple of weeks before the start of the 2019 season, Freeze underwent surgery to treat a staph infection. He was expected to miss his first game as Liberty’s head football coach, a Top 25 matchup in Lynchburg against Syracuse. On the day of the game, there was a change of plans. Freeze decided to coach that game from a hospital bed.

“But then school officials had to figure out just how to get him into Liberty’s Arthur L. Williams Stadium,” wrote Low. “After wheeling him into the stadium, they crammed a hospital bed into what was originally a radio/TV booth in the press box. They then cut a hole into the wall so Freeze could see his coaches in the regular coaches’ booth adjacent to him.”

The sport of college football produces some bizarre moments. “Hugh Freeze coaches from a hospital bed” is hard to top.

Coaching from a hospital bed, @CoachHughFreeze gets @LibertyFootball fired up to take on @CuseFootball. #TougherTogether pic.twitter.com/f5IPQmESpZ

— Game On LU (@GameOnLU) August 31, 2019

Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze with a different style of press conference tonight. He coached from a hospital bed in a coaches booth due to a back injury which he says he’ll have more of an update on in a few days.

Freeze on how he coached from the booth tonight: pic.twitter.com/EftJ7wFSUr

— Josh Schafer (@_JoshSchafer) September 1, 2019

That was a memorable night on the internet for college football fans. We probably won’t see Freeze getting wheeled around Kroger Field, but tonight’s game was already shaping up to be a bizarre battle on the gridiron. This is just another weird wrinkle ahead of the chaos.

Hugh Freeze coached from a hospital bed in the press box so they did postgame handshakes like this pic.twitter.com/4wbDMCe7MY

— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) September 1, 2019

Just waiting for ESPN to show Hugh Freeze Live from his hospital bed pic.twitter.com/E3wFHOTP89

— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) August 31, 2019

While we’re talking about Hugh Freeze coaching from a hospital bed, just a reminder he very well could be 100% healthy tonight. pic.twitter.com/qnlIaW7dfH

— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) August 31, 2019

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