Auburn football: Hugh Freeze ready to focus on recruiting, transfer portal

The Auburn football program has finally turned a corner with the naming of an official head coach in Hugh Freeze, who immediately made the smart decision to retain former interim head coach Cadillac Williams as Associate Head Coach.

Now that he has officially gotten the job, Freeze has a lot of things to focus on, namely getting a staff together as quickly as possible. However, looming just a few weeks away is Early National Signing Day on December 21, a critical date for recruiting the 2023 class.

Currently, the Auburn football program has 13 commits in the recruiting class of 2023, earning the #10 overall spot in the SEC. Freeze stated in his introductory press conference on the Plains that he is aware the coaching staff needs to make “a lot of headway in a hurry” and we can expect him to get started with recruitment as early as this upcoming weekend, when universities are allow to host prospects again all the way up to Early Signing Day.

While there are still quite a few holes left to fill on the 2023 roster, there are also still plenty of top targets still on the table that are uncommitted, and several who could be considering a potential flip now that the Tigers have a coach in place.

Auburn football has 24 spots left for high school and transfer portal prospects to officially visit, and those recruits that have already taken an official visit to the Plains will be allowed to do so again should they choose due to the new coaching staff. Also in his press conference, Freeze stated that looking for more talent in the transfer portal will be a priority for the 2023 class, per AL.com:

"“I think Year 1, the portal will be a big priority,” Freeze said. “Again, this is without me talking to recruiting yet to kind of find out where we are with the high school recruits. I do believe in building with high school kids and filling in with the portal. Can we do that in Year 1? I’m not sure yet. So, I would anticipate it being heavier toward the portal.”"

Recruiting has certainly been one of Auburn football’s biggest struggles for a couple years, but Hugh Freeze seems ready and willing to hit the ground running and start pulling talent to the Plains.