Auburn football HC Hugh Freeze has different expectations for bowl prep

Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze isn’t very big on setting goals, but he did set one for his first season on the Plains: get the Tigers to a bowl game. Things didn’t look too good during the four game skid at the beginning of SEC play, but Auburn got it together and secured six wins for bowl eligibility in their head coach’s first year.

It is a big deal for a lot of reasons, including the fact that some of the players on Auburn football’s roster have not had the chance to have a real bowl game experience. From missing out on the post-season entirely to being sent to the Birmingham Bowl, there hasn’t been a lot of excitement around bowl season for the Tigers in the past few years.

Now, having accomplished his goal and earned the set of additional practices that comes with bowl eligibility, Freeze intends to reward the team, per Auburn Rivals:

"“I’m not one that grinds them during the bowl. I’m really not. I want them to enjoy the journey and the process,” said Freeze."

The Tigers will likely learn their bowl destination this weekend with the Liberty Bowl (Dec. 29), the Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Dec. 27), the Texas Bowl (Dec. 27), or the Music City Bowl (Dec. 30) as probably options for an Auburn team that is arguably better than a 6-6 record can show.

As for prep plans, Freeze went on to say that the team will try to get five practices in Auburn, and then three more at the actual bowl site, noting that eight practices with lots of individual work is what the coaching staff will try to accomplish this year. And they will do all this in between recruiting seeing as early national signing day is also coming up in the next few weeks.