For the sixth time in his career and the first as Auburn’s head coach, Hugh Freeze took the podium at SEC Media Days on Tuesday. After the 2022 Tigers suffered through a 5-7 season and a sixth-place finish in the SEC West, Freeze’s mantra through the offseason has been “flip the script”, a theme prevalent in Freeze’s remarks in Nashville, Tennessee.
Freeze installed a new mindset in the locker room during the spring, ignoring what national media pundits said about the Tigers.
“The first thing that I think had to be flipped was the mindset, because I really believe as a man thinketh, so he is,” Freeze said. “What do we think about ourselves at Auburn, and they had heard so much and will hear so much about what people's opinion are or where you should be picked to finish and all of these things.”
Another of Freeze’s early objectives was to close the talent gap that had developed between Auburn and some of the SEC’s top programs. Though Freeze deemed it too early to tell whether the gap had closed, he felt confident that his program had improved during his first seven months.
“Do I think we've improved Auburn with the additions that we've had since I've been there? Yes. Does that mean we close the gap at all? I have no clue,” Freeze said. “I do know we improved Auburn, and I hope that means that we somehow close the gap enough to — if we have a good game plan, to be in some of those games in the fourth quarter and have maybe a shot to pull an upset.”
In his description of the culture he has established at Auburn, Freeze repeated one word — “faith.”
“Faith, obviously that's a word that can mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people, and certainly it means something for me, and the bottom line is if we are going to reestablish Auburn being what Auburn should be, we must have faith in each other,” Freeze said.
As the SEC prepares to add Oklahoma and Texas and the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams in 2024, Freeze believes Auburn can be a constant contender, both in the conference and nationally.
“I would see us in the upper echelon of this conference. There's no reason -- we have the facilities. We have the support. We have the administration. You're in an area that football is important, and you're in an area that you can recruit to,” Freeze said. “I see no reason why Auburn shouldn't be one of the upper half and competing every year. Look, if you're in the upper half of this conference, you get a break here or there, you're in the playoffs. Then you've got a real chance. That's where I see Auburn.”
Though some express concern about Auburn’s quarterback room, Freeze expressed optimism about his group of signal-callers.
“Quarterback-wise, that's going to be a challenge for us, not because — I'm very truthfully a lot more optimistic than most people are. I think we've got a good room,” Freeze said. “But I'm an optimist. We've been able to do things with quarterbacks everywhere we've been and produce good enough results to win. I thought spring practice we got better there. Obviously, we want to create competition in that room. That's why we brought in Payton (Thorne), who's had great experiences.”
Thorne, who started 26 games for Michigan State, brings experience and leadership to an Auburn quarterback room that ranked last in the SEC with 172.7 passing yards per game in 2022.
“I think what (Thorne) adds to that room right now is incredible leadership,” Freeze said. “One of the first things he did is come in and say, ‘Coach, is there any way someone can give me a sheet of paper that has a picture of everyone that works in this building because I want to learn everyone's name.’ That's the type of leader he is. But it's going to create great competition between he, Robby (Ashford) and Holden (Geriner), and obviously, I'm excited about Hank Brown, too, but he's obviously just a freshman.”
Largely due to his relationship with Auburn University President Dr. Chris Roberts and athletic director John Cohen, as well as the support of the Auburn fanbase, Freeze senses a bright future for the Auburn football program as it continues to rebuild.
“Obviously, we owe a debt, a great debt of gratitude to our fan base,” Freeze said. “I think we have an incredible fan base that we've sold more season tickets in the history of the program this year, and while that speaks to their expectations and their excitement, hopefully they'll give us a little patience as we continue to rebuild this roster to hopefully close the gap on those guys in this league that are doing it at a high, high level.”
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Matthew is a senior from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in journalism. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2021.
Twitter: @mattwallaceAU
