The first week under [autotag]Hugh Freeze[/autotag] has been exciting for Auburn football.
Freeze is already visiting prospects in their homes while building a staff that could bring Auburn back to relevancy in the SEC Championship hunt.
From a football standpoint, Freeze appears to be a great fit for Auburn. So much so, that one college football analyst believes Freeze can lead the Tigers to a complete turnaround in Year 1, similar to what Gus Malzahn did in 2013 when he led Auburn to a BCS national championship appearance after Auburn went 3-9 with zero SEC wins the season before.
During a segment of ESPN’s premier Saturday morning show, “College GameDay,” hosts Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Kirk Herbstreit shared their takes on several hypothetical questions, including which first-year coach in 2023 could be the next Sonny Dykes.
Dykes, who is in his first season at TCU, has led the Horned Frogs to the Big 12 Championship game and a potential berth in the College Football Playoff. Herbstreit believes Auburn’s new coach could mirror that first-year performance.
Later in the show, Freeze joined the show to talk about his new job. Herbstreit asked Freeze what needs to happen to get Auburn back to the level of competition that fans and administration expect.
“We have to go get players; we have to revamp the roster,” Freeze said. “The good thing, in this day and time, you can do that fairly fast at Auburn.”
He followed that response by selling his program on the national show.
“Look, there is only five schools that have, in the last 12 years, have played for a national championship, won it, and played for one and not won it. Auburn is one of those five,” Freeze said. “For all of the recruits that are listening right now … look, you can play right away, you can help us get that back there. Tradition is there, the support is there, passion is there, the resources are there and now we have to pull everybody together and head in the same direction, but we have to go get great players.”
Auburn’s 2023 recruiting class currently ranks No. 46 in 247Sports rankings following the decision by four-star wide receiver Adam Hopkins to reopen his commitment. Freeze has received good news, however. Receiver Ze’vion Capers removed his name from the transfer portal.
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