Funny story: Hugh Freeze shades Auburn players following Oklahoma loss” ‘I think you all are aware of what we inherited’ freeze throws many blames” Hugh Freeze’s language has gotten him into problems before during his time coaching college football…
Hugh Freeze’s language has gotten him into problems before during his time coaching college football, so it was not shocking that on Monday he appeared to blame some of his Auburn teammates for the team’s poor start to the season at the news conference.
The Auburn head coach took to the podium Monday to discuss the fallout from the Tigers’ 27-21 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday as well as try to explain why the program’s 2-3 start to the 2024 college football season wasn’t indicative of how well things were going, actually.
Freeze began by thanking students and fans for their support, acknowledged that the players are “gutted” about the situation, and discussed his role in restoring “the glory” and the need to “build up Auburn men.”
From there, Freeze took a shot at his predecessor, Bryan Harsin, as well as the players on the current roster who were here before he took over.
“I think you all are aware of what we inherited,” he said. “Our AD has done a marvelous job of explaining that. He did to me before I took the job, with the previous recruiting classes not being what you need to compete at a high level. And 57 transfers out in the previous three years before my arrival.”
After Freeze was asked if fan expectations were realistic given the program he inherited, the coach doubled down on his assessments.
I won’t comment on what happened before I was here,” he said. “The roster was what it was. Everybody can make their own determination on that, on how many people left and the recruiting rankings and what was brought in.”
Freeze also noted that whenever he talks about “how something really is,” he gets blamed for “throwing somebody under the bus.”
While Freeze has a point in that the brief Harsin Era was a massive disappointment, he’s in his second season after going 6-7 last year. It’s fair for Tiger fans to expect the program to get back to its winning ways. In fact, Vegas agreed with them, putting Auburn as the betting favorite in all five of their games so far this season, all of which have been home games.
Freeze’s pièce de résistance came when discussing the plan Auburn had in place against Oklahoma on Saturday.
“And I told our staff that honestly, it’s one of the better game plans that a staff has put together in my time,” Freeze said of the game plan that led to a 27-21 loss at home.
These comments come a week after Freeze claimed Auburn would beat Arkansas 9 times out of 10 after the Razorbacks defeated them, 24-14.
There’s been quite a bit of discussion around how Auburn “could very easily be undefeated,” be it from Freeze or ESPN commentators. But the fact of the matter is that they’re 2-3 and staring down a schedule that still includes Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky, and Alabama. If Freeze is expecting to stick around long enough to make Auburn as good as he says they are, he better start winning instead of making excuses.
