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Hugh Freeze sends damning message on first Auburn scrimmage

By Andrew Hughes

Hugh Freeze sent a damning message on the first Auburn football scrimmage of fall camp -- claiming that it made him physically sick Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports
Hugh Freeze sent a damning message on the first Auburn football scrimmage of fall camp -- claiming that it made him physically sick Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports /
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Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze was physically sickened by the lack of execution from his Tigers during the program’s first fall camp scrimmage on August 12. Freeze claimed the players weren’t able to handle the heat outside in Jordan-Hare Stadium — as opposed to the cool air-conditioned Woltosz Football Performance Center — in a lengthy rant.

“Truthfully, when I watched the film after the scrimmage, it made me sick,” Freeze said (h/t Rivals). “I didn’t think we competed. It was almost like we just melted under that heat. We’ve handled the heat pretty well. This has been maybe the hottest camp I’ve experienced. When you’re here, you get to take a break inside and we get to cool them down with all the water mists and all of that. You go over there (Jordan-Hare Stadium) for that game, there’s none of that going on that day. I just didn’t think we handled it extremely well. I’m excited for another opportunity this Saturday to see how we handle it.” Freeze did praise his players on August 17 but was clearly hung up on his team’s scrimmage performance.

“They had a really good week last week and they’ve had a better week this week,” Freeze prefaced before saying, “We had our best practice Tuesday night and I think they’re improving. Still way too many MAs. When I say MAs, the route is truncated. If it’s supposed to be a 12, it’s a 10. We have to get all of that cleaned up. We’ve got two weeks to do that. But we’ve had a solid week. Just did not have a good scrimmage.”

Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze shows traits that made him coaching star

As one of the most sought-after candidates on the coaching market in the last several offseasons, Freeze has become one of the top names in the coaching game due to his success at Ole Miss and, to a lesser extent, his success at Liberty.

His obsession with his Auburn football team’s underwhelming scrimmage is a microcosm of how he got to that point as a coach.

Freeze is not a notorious hothead like his Yellowhammer State SEC counterpart to the northwest, but he clearly will put his foot down if he’s not liking what he’s seeing. Tiger fans figure to like what they see, though, once Freeze stomps out what he doesn’t in fall camp.

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