Hugh Freeze, the head coach of Auburn football, on building his own team
Hugh Freeze, the head coach of Auburn football, talks on the difficulties of keeping the team competitive in the current collegiate football landscape.
Watching the new freshmen players succeed has been the season’s high point, despite Auburn’s football team’s lackluster record. A fantastic 2024 class was brought in by head coach Hugh Freeze and his staff, and the results of their labor are already beginning to show.
Although veteran KeAndre Lambert-Smith is in charge of this year’s wide receiver room, freshmen Malcolm Simmons and Cam Coleman make significant contributions. Jay Crawford and Demarcus Riddick are among the several freshmen on the defense, particularly in the secondary. It’s evident that the bar is extremely high for the team’s youngest players, even with the lack of success this season.
The transfer portal and the current college football culture of NIL, along with the high level of talent, have presented coaches with a number of difficulties. In addition to recruiting players to join the squad, they also need to keep the players on their current roster.
According to Auburn Undercover, Freeze stated, “When you’re playing as many young kids as we are that are very talented that we signed in the ’24 class, their phones are going to ring.” “I hope the calls wouldn’t go through. It’s likely that I was a little ignorant as well. I don’t flee it.”
The head coach of the Tigers said that it is still challenging to teach while knowing that some players may be leaving, but he gave respect to the staff at OnToVictory for managing many of the challenging talks with players.
“I talked to two different head coaches today because, truthfully, one of them is my friend and he’s already heard that one of his (players) may be going in the portal and look at Auburn,” Free freeze stated. It puts your friendships to the test. It’s uncomfortable. It’s not comfy. It is really difficult to recruit your own locker room. “Can we please just get some sort of regulations around it so that we’re somewhat protected with the guys in your locker room?” is what we’re all thinking. We are not against the new revenue-sharing model or anything like, but we must have a solution where all parties have equal support. That should arrive sooner rather than later, hopefully.
