NASHVILLE – Back from a few days at a mountain cabin where he crafted the teaching plan for his first season on the Plains, head coach Hugh Freeze outlined his strategy to help Auburn ascend in the Southeastern Conference Tuesday at SEC Media Days.
"I'm going to depend on our assistant coaches an enormous amount to help us capture their minds and their hearts," said Freeze of the 2023 roster that's continually evolved since his arrival in late November. "We're going to need everybody in that team room to be of one mind and one accord. That's a big challenge for us, to formulate a team from so many new faces in a very short amount of time."
Making that task easier, Freeze says, is the alignment among Auburn University president Dr. Chris Roberts, athletics director John Cohen and Freeze himself.
"We are as aligned as we could ever be," Freeze said. "We're going to ride this bus together. I think Auburn can be great, and I think we will be. How fast we can close the gap on the ones who are doing it at a very, very high level right now, I don't really know."
Auburn's 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes, says Freeze, will determine how quickly the Tigers can catch up to their rivals, making each home football game this season a showcase for prospective student-athletes.
"We're training (Auburn students) to help it be the most difficult place opponents get to see," said Freeze, mentioning his summer talks to incoming freshmen at Camp War Eagle. "I think our fans are incredible. We're humbled that we've sold more season tickets than in the history of the program.
"That speaks to the passion our fans have, not to mention our students. I'm really excited about experiencing that from the home side."
The Freeze era begins Sept. 2 at 2:30 p.m. CT when Massachusetts visits Jordan-Hare Stadium for Kickoff on The Plains.
"Humbling, gratifying, thankful," Freeze said of the support Auburn has received in his first eight months as head coach. "It speaks to what the Auburn Family is all about, and that is family. Families aren't perfect all the time but you're still family.
"They've welcomed our staff, my family and our new players and are excited about the effort we're putting in to try to put a product on the field that brings them joy so we're very thankful."
Freeze won't pay much attention Friday when reporters predict where they think Auburn will finish in the final season of the SEC West. He has his own intentions for the 2023 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 some games in the fourth quarter.
"Can we just play well at practice, then tomorrow at practice, then 60 minutes on Saturday and see where that puts us? We can control how we approach us preparing for the opportunities we're going to be given. How we prepare is what really matters, not where somebody picks us or what the expectations are."
Unknowns abound, more than Freeze has previously carried into a preseason camp. What is known is that Auburn has won big before – in his opening remarks, Freeze mentioned that Auburn is one of six programs to play for two national championships in the past 13 years – and he's determined to lead the Tigers back to SEC prominence.
"We could not have asked for a better welcome to the Plains," he said. "What a great place it is to live. We're excited about putting our roots down and building this program back to what it's been."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer
