7.19.23 Auburn Football

aubiefifty · July 19, 2023

auburnwire.usatoday.com

Auburn is expected to be one of college football's most improved teams this season

Daniel Locke

~2 minutes

There has been a drastic change in the energy surrounding the Auburn football program since Hugh Freeze took charge in December.

After two seasons of a tenure that left a lot to be desired, Tiger fans have high hopes for what Auburn will be able to accomplish in Freeze’s first season with the program.

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Fortunately for Tiger fans, Phil Steele is high on the Tigers’ chances to rebound. He has included Auburn in his 16 most-improved teams list.

Steele’s thoughts are included on why he thinks the teams he believes to be improved will be that way. With the recent changes within the program, he sees Auburn playing to its potential.

Steele’s take on Auburn: “All nine sets of my power rankings call for a winning season, there is no weekly talk about when a coach will be fired as the team is fully behind both Hugh Freeze and Cadillac Williams and will play to their potential with 17 returning starters and some solid transfers.”

Auburn will look incredibly different in 2023, which is likely a positive thing. Time will tell if Auburn can live up to these expectations or if recent trends continue.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Daniel on Twitter @DanielJLocke

aubiefifty · July 19, 2023

247sports.com

Freeze very thankful to see a record number of season tickets sold at Auburn

Jason Caldwell

5–6 minutes

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Senior Auburn tight end Luke Deal won’t likely be among those chosen on the preseason All-SEC team. He might or might not be a starter on head coach Hugh Freeze’s first Auburn football team.

Yet, Deal was one of three players chosen to represent Auburn at SEC Media Days on Tuesday. That’s because he is the kind of football player and the kind of man that every coach wants on his team.

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Deal said Tuesday that Auburn has changed his life in ways that transcend winning and losing football games.

“I think it has set me up for life,” said Deal. “Life definitely throws curveballs at you. It’s how you respond. I have had so many positive moments. People like to focus on the negative. I wouldn’t change anything for the world. Hopefully, it’s made me into a better husband and future father.”

Last season, Deal and his teammates went through a season they never expected when they signed with Auburn. After a 41-27 loss to Arkansas, Auburn’s fourth consecutive loss, second-year head coach Bryan Harsin was fired. But from that grew new hope with the help of interim head coach Cadillac Williams.

“Last year was a tough moment,” Deal said. “What we experienced midway through the year was something not many college football teams experience. It was the way in which we responded, the way Auburn University and the Auburn family responded. Having a sellout crowd against Texas A&M after being that bad is something you don’t see every often. It’s something I was blessed to be a part of it. We are building off of it to this day.

“That was a turning point. It was a very low point in my career, but it has led me to here.”

In June of that year, Deal dealt with something far more difficult than a lost football game or a lost football season. Less than two months after Deal married his wife, Ansley, his father, the man he called his hero, died far too young, finally losing his battle with ALS at the age of 50.

“It was absolutely the most difficult time of my life,” Deal said. “It also has helped mold me. Seeing someone at their lowest ebb does that to you – I have the ALS ribbon on for a reason. It’s a horrible disease. It takes everything from your body. For somebody who was a big football player like my dad and a big, strong, loud guy, to see everything taken from you is something that is heartbreaking.”

Even in tragedy, Luke Deal learned lessons of strength and sacrifice. He proudly wears an ALS ribbon on his lapel.

“To see how he responded, to see how he led our family when he was at his lowest physical point, is something I will never forget,” Deal said. “In his last days, I learned some of the most valuable lessons I will ever learn. I hopefully will take that in leadership with this team and with my family at home.”

Deal has an Auburn degree. He is working on a graduate degree. It didn’t take long for Freeze to recognize Deal has unusual qualities of leadership, compassion and dedication to his team and teammates.

“I just think he’s a quality human being first and foremost who understands the qualities and the core values of our program — faith and attitude and mental toughness and integrity and love,” Freeze said. “He exemplifies those. And he’s tough, loves the game, obviously. I think anytime we go through hardships in life, whether we cause them or they’re through circumstances that come into your life, how you handle those says probably more about you than how you handle all the good times. I see that in him.”

Deal’s teammates see it, too, on the field and off.

“I see the way the kids follow him,” Freeze said. “His voice matters. I wish I could talk him into taking a sixth year and staying with us. I don’t know if I’m going to win that battle or not, but he’s definitely a great human being, man and, obviously, teammate.”

More words of wisdom from Deal:

On NIL’s locker-room impact

“I think it is obviously a challenge. We are human, and we are going to think about those things. Coach Freeze has addressed us and done a really good job with it. He has said operate out of your blessing and not your entitlement. I have carried that with me. NIL is a blessing for us. I have been very fortunate and blessed to things for my family that I couldn’t have without NIL.

“It’s not worrying about other people, not worrying about what this guy or that guy is getting. It is operating out of my blessing.

On Freeze’s arrival as head coach

“We were sitting there figuring out who is going to be our coach. We are much more assured now, knowing who we have here and knowing what he’s about. He’s been in the SEC. He has beaten teams we need to beat. I’ve bought in to what he is saying. Our team has bought into what he is saying.”

On what it will take for Auburn to have a big season

“Really, it is going to take a winning culture and everybody being bought in. There is always a challenge every year with every college football team. That is to get everybody bought in and moving in the same direction. I think we’ve done a good job of that. We have built relationships. We have brought the young guys along, brought the transfers along. We have some really good leadership. I am excited for it. That’s what is going to bring his back.”

aubiefifty · July 19, 2023

si.com

College football analyst claims there are 'more questions about Auburn than anything else'

Lance Dawe

3–4 minutes

Are the Tigers entering 2023 with a ton of questions?

Most media outlets project Auburn to finish somewhere between 6-6 and 9-3 this season.

After a disappointing 5-7 campaign in 2022, the Tigers are projected to improve underneath new head coach Hugh Freeze. Freeze has worked wonders during his first few months on the Plains, knocking it out of the park on the recruiting trail as well as through the transfer portal.

College football expert Tony Barnhart sat down with Zac Blackerby and Darrell Dapprich of the Locked On Auburn podcast to discuss Hugh Freeze and how he thinks the Tigers' season will go.

According to Barnhart, there are more questions about Auburn than anything else.

“Usually, Hugh Freeze's track record is that once he gets the quarterback situation figured out, it usually tends to go pretty well," Barnhart said. "What I'm going to be fascinated by is when the media votes later on this week and they announce it, I think it'll be Friday when they announce it, they're going to be close to the bottom because you just go through and you get more questions about Auburn than anything else. All I know is it's usually not a good sign when you add a quarterback after spring practice. I mean, they did it, Alabama did it, and so that's going to be a fascinating thing to watch. I don't see Auburn finishing last in the division. I just think they have enough talent to do better, but so does Arkansas, so does Mississippi State, so does Ole Miss, so does LSU. It's going to be a tough division”.

SEC Media Days is being hosted this year in Nashville, Tennessee for the very first time.

Auburn Daily is here covering Media Days all week long. You can catch updates, quotes, predictions and more here on auburndaily.com.

Daily Wire's Jake Crain predicts Auburn to finish third in SEC West

Jayden Daniels shared his thoughts on playing in Jordan-Hare Stadium

Jake Crain believes Auburn football can be 'sneaky' under Hugh Freeze

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey discusses the elimination of divisions in future conference scheduling

College football expert 'doesn't see' eight wins on Auburn football's 2023 schedule

The Tigers kick off the 2023 season on September 2nd at home vs UMass at 2 p.m. CT on ESPN.

Here's a look at the entire 2023 schedule:

Sept. 2nd vs UMass

Sept. 9th at California

Sept. 16th vs Samford

Sept. 23rd at Texas A&M

Sept. 30th vs Georgia

Oct. 14th at LSU

Oct. 21st vs Ole Miss

Oct. 28th vs Mississippi State

Nov. 4th at Vanderbilt

Nov. 11th at Arkansas

Nov. 18th vs New Mexico State

Nov. 25th vs Alabama

Engage with Auburn Daily on Socials!

aubiefifty · July 19, 2023

saturdaydownsouth.com

Hugh Freeze picked up right where he left off at SEC Media Days … but in a good way

Connor O'Gara

6–7 minutes

NASHVILLE — Six years after he was last at SEC Media Days, Hugh Freeze began Tuesday in fitting fashion.

“It’s good to be back.”

Freeze came back to the place where he made his last public appearance as Ole Miss’ head coach. SEC Media Days in 2017 was just a touch different for Freeze. Shoot, only 3 of the SEC’s current 14 coaches were in the same job. Little did we know that Freeze was about to get fired with cause following an escort service scandal that rocked college football.

Freeze was back, albeit with a different perspective than the one he had 6 years ago.

Yeah, that’s not the Freeze that we got on Tuesday. He has been humbled. It shows.

Freeze, unlike Jimbo Fisher, was willing to offer up some transparency on the offense he’s running.

“I think once upon a time I was probably one of the better play-callers in college football. Obviously better players make you a better play-caller. I don’t know that I was the greatest play-caller or one of the best play-callers the last few years at Liberty,” Freeze said. “I managed the game really well and gave our kids a chance to obviously win some huge games, and we were really good on defense, and I kind of played to that.

“But coming back knowing what was all-encompassing to bring Auburn back, sitting in the chair that I have to sit in, I needed help.”

That help came in the form of Philip Montgomery, who’ll run Freeze’s system. “We’re running the same system that I’ve always run. I wasn’t going to get away from that. It’s worked for me everywhere I’ve been,” Freeze said.

There will be times in which Freeze might step in and call plays, but it’ll be mostly Montgomery, who was also brought in to help shake up the terminology. Freeze hasn’t changed that since his days coaching high school football 2 decades ago and, because he’s talked ball with so many SEC coaches on other staffs, he said the terminology has to change.

Freeze’s critical reasoning to pivot away from those play-calling duties makes sense. He certainly benefitted from the off-script brilliance of Malik Willis at Liberty. That’s obviously where Freeze had to reestablish himself as a head coach and convince the college football world that he was worthy of returning to the SEC stage.

“I would be less than truthful with you if after we started having success at Liberty, particularly with it just going FBS and us being able to beat the likes of Arkansas and BYU and Virginia Tech and Syracuse and playing close with every Power 5 that we played, did the thought start creeping in your mind that certain opportunities might present themselves again? Yes, at that point,” Freeze said. “But not prior to that point did (returning to the SEC) enter my mind.”

It does feel a bit full circle for Freeze. It’s probably not fair to say that he picked up right where he left off, though he did know that Bob Holt of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette getting a customary 4-part question off at Media Days is still very much the norm.

But Freeze didn’t take the approach of praising how loaded his team was with a position-by-position breakdown, which is something plenty of coaches do. He admitted the list of unknowns heading into his first season back is long.

“This is a strange feeling,” Freeze said, “and in some ways for me I’ve never experienced going into Fall camp and having so many unknowns in my mind, whether that’s because of the new world of you gained some of your roster from transfer portal world or you gained it even after spring practice through the portal world, and then obviously summer enrollees come.”

One of those guys gained after spring practice was Payton Thorne, the Michigan State transfer quarterback who brings the most experience to the table. He, Robby Ashford and Holden Geriner are in the midst of a quarterback battle, which Freeze said he has a 10-day plan to narrow to 2. It’ll be the first major decision for Freeze to make from a personnel standpoint.

But a Year 1 quarterback decision won’t determine whether Freeze has many more SEC Media Days appearances in his future. It’ll be everything else. Coaching personnel decisions, roster development, fitting into his new surroundings, getting players to buy what he’s selling … that’ll define this next chapter of Freeze’s SEC career.

A year ago at SEC Media Days, Freeze’s predecessor, Bryan Harsin, spoke directly about the coup to get him fired after Year 1. He won the day by addressing the messy scandal head on, and he maintained that he’d move past it and that it wouldn’t define his chapter at Auburn. Ultimately, though, Harsin couldn’t make it to his third SEC Media Days.

Freeze was at his sixth SEC Media Days, and his first at Auburn. He’s stepping into a different world. Six years ago, he wouldn’t have offered up a 443-word answer on teaching financial literacy with the sudden influx of NIL. Six years ago, he might’ve spoken confidently about why he felt he was poised to have one of the best offenses in America. Six years ago, he would’ve had every reason to push back on the notion that there were cracks in his foundation.

Six years later, Freeze is back, hopeful to turn the page.

aubiefifty · July 19, 2023

espn.com

Auburn's Hugh Freeze says team could play two QBs this season - ESPN

Pete Thamel

3–4 minutes

Did Auburn make the right move hiring Hugh Freeze? (1:28)

Paul Finebaum breaks down the expectations for Auburn ahead of its first season under Hugh Freeze. (1:28)

Pete Thamel, ESPNJul 18, 2023, 05:51 PM ET

NASHVILLE -- When Hugh Freeze took over at Ole Miss in 2012, the Rebels had lost 15 straight SEC games. They made a bowl in his first season and began an upward trajectory that included an appearance in the Peach Bowl in his third season.

As he takes over at Auburn more than a decade later, Freeze faces both ambiguity at the quarterback position and uncertainty that he'll be able to elevate the Auburn program on a similarly quick timeline.

Freeze told ESPN on Tuesday that Auburn could end up playing two quarterbacks at times this season, as incumbent Robby Ashford and Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne are expected to battle for the starting position.

"Do I think it's possible to play two and win?" Freeze said. "I do, actually, if they handle it the right way. Someone is going to have to be the starter. And someone is going to be the guy you depend on in the fourth quarter."

Ashford started nine times for the Tigers last season after transferring from Oregon, going 3-6 over those games. Thorne hasn't practiced yet for Auburn after leaving Michigan State, but he is a proven commodity with 26 career starts and a 16-10 record.

Ashford, a dynamic athlete who played baseball while at Oregon, profiles more as a dual-threat quarterback. Thorne is more of a pure drop-back passer who doesn't offer a significant threat in the run game.

"Robby Ashford can help us win games," Freeze said. "He is the most freakish athlete I have ever had at quarterback. Can he be the quarterback? I don't know yet. But can we use him to help us win games? There's no doubt in my mind if he handles the competition."

Freeze acknowledged that the quarterback position will be the key to a turnaround. Auburn is coming off back-to-back losing seasons, with head coach Bryan Harsin being fired in October last year after starting 3-5.

Freeze said it'd be easy to assume he could juice up a program with a national title pedigree like Auburn as fast as he did at Ole Miss but that things have changed since he arrived in Oxford more than a decade ago.

"My initial reaction would be, 'Well, dang, surely it's easier to flip Auburn,'" he said. "But I think the league's gotten better than it was then. And so I'm fearful to say it just seems like everybody's better. I probably caught that job at the right time where some people were down."

Freeze said he's curious how big the gap is between Auburn and the SEC powers, as the best players in the portal are heading to the bold-faced name destinations around the league.

"It's scary," Freeze said of the gap. "And I know I've improved [the roster]. But is it enough to go out and compete against Alabama in Georgia in year one, or LSU? I don't know."

aubiefifty · July 19, 2023

theplainsman.com

Freeze ‘flipping the script’ prior to first season at Auburn - The Auburn Plainsman

6–7 minutes

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 Wallace | Sports Reporter

Matthew is a junior from Huntsville, Alabama majoring in journalism. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2021.

Twitter: @mattwallaceAU

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aubiefifty · July 19, 2023

auburntigers.com

Hugh Freeze at SEC Media Days: 'Auburn can be great'

Auburn University Athletics

4–5 minutes

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."

FB: 2023 SEC Media Day - Hugh Freeze

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

aubiefifty · July 19, 2023

247sports.com

Injury updates Auburn healthier at a number of positions entering fall camp

Nathan King