SEC Network host Peter Burns sent a strong message on the excitement Auburn football fans are having due to the recruiting efforts of new Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze — proclaiming that it’s the “first time in a while” fans are this pumped on the Plains.
Haven't had a chance to see it first hand until this week down at the @RegionsTrad...but @AuburnFootball fans are fired up about @CoachHughFreeze.
— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) May 12, 2023
1st time in a while I've seen that fanbase excited about the future around their football team
Hope is a powerful currency in CFB
It’s hard not to see why. Freeze has plugged several holes that the roster was facing due to under-recruitment during the previous coaching regime, revamping the offensive line and receiving corps, and adding talent in the defensive trenches to make up for the losses of Owen Pappoe, Colby Wooden, Derick Hall, and Eku Leota.
Even after A-Day, with fans complaining about there being no clear option under center if the team wanted to truly ascend in the SEC West, Freeze went and grabbed one of the most decorated quarterbacks in the transfer portal, Payton Thorne, to satisfy their needs.
ESPN analyst: Hugh Freeze has pulled Auburn football ‘out of its own muck’
ESPN’s Heather Dinich believes Freeze has been hands-on during his all-in efforts to turn the ship around for Auburn football during the 2023 season — describing the recruiting renaissance as pulling AU “out of its own muck.”
“Freeze, who was one of the most controversial hires of the offseason because of his own troubled past, is already knee-deep in trying to pull Auburn out of its own muck,” Dinich wrote.
That muck was of both the Bryan Harsin (hiring and firing) and Gus Malzahn (firing) varieties. There would’ve been even more muck if Freeze hadn’t put his head down and given Tiger fans his all as he has.