Analyst on Auburn football HC Hugh Freeze: ‘There might not be a coach more thankful for the transfer portal and NIL’
Not a single coach in the country owes more to the changes college football has undergone than the newly implemented Auburn football head coach, Hugh Freeze, according to AL.com’s Nubyjas Wilborn.
Freeze inherited a roster that was lacking in blue-chip recruits for the 2023 cycle, but the 53-year-old was able to turn things around for the incoming class enough to get AU into the top 20 nationally. He was seen repping Auburn’s NIL collective, On To Victory, in meetings with recruits — and while he isn’t able to explicitly discuss any NIL offer, he at least was able to steer players on where they can.
Because of that, Wilborn believes Freeze has benefitted more than any other head coach with how recruiting has radically shifted in the past several years post-COVID and said as much in a piece titled ‘Will Hugh Freeze’s offensive line rebuild work in 2023 at Auburn?’:
"“There might not be a coach more thankful for the transfer portal and NIL than Freeze at Auburn. If not for the portal, Auburn would’ve had to replace four of the five offensive line positions with players with minimal experience playing college football.”"
The fast-paced nature of college football post-COVID is how Auburn football got away with a second HC hiring in two years
Auburn football having to twice overhaul most of its coaching staff in the span of two years would’ve been damning in the previous era. Without the ability to bring players aboard with immediate eligibility, AU would’ve had to rely on young guns and in-house improvements to dig itself out of the hole both Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin’s coaching staff put the Tigers in.
The past two years, Auburn found a quarterback who started at least three games via the transfer portal, and for all we know, they could end up doing the same once the recruiting dead period ends. Harsin also found some of his top receivers in 2021 (Demetris Robertson) and 2022 (Koy Moore) in the portal.
What the previous regime did wasn’t enough, but it still likely made Auburn more competitive than they would’ve been otherwise. Freeze is using the same methods to cover holes all over his roster, so we could see this talent accumulation method pay off closer to ideally if the Tigers’ new coach’s portal poaches profile to be well-fitting pieces.
Just imagine if Freeze didn’t have the option of bringing guys on, particularly along the offensive line, with immediate eligibility…