Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze addresses the challenges of maintaining the roster in the modern era of college football
Although the Auburn football team has not picked up many wins this season, the highlight of the year has been watching the new freshmen players find success. Head coach Hugh Freeze and his staff brought in a tremendous 2024 class, and their hard work is already starting to pay off.
This year's wide receiver room is led by veteran KeAndre Lambert-Smith, but freshmen Malcolm Simmons and Cam Coleman are major contributors. The defense, especially the secondary, is laden with freshmen, from Jay Crawford to Demarcus Riddick. Despite the lack of results this season, it's clear that the ceiling is very high for the youngest players on the team.
The high level of talent, combined with the modern-day college football culture of NIL and the transfer portal, has created a set of challenges for coaches. Not only do they have to go out and recruit players to join the team, but they also have to maintain the roster they currently have.
"When you're playing as many young kids as we are that are very talented that we signed in the '24 class, their phones are going to ring," said Freeze, per Auburn Undercover. "I wish they wouldn't take the calls. That's probably a little naive of me also. I don't run from it."
The Tigers' head coach credited the personnel at OnToVictory for handling a lot of the difficult conversations with players, but said trying to coach while knowing that some players may be on their way out is still difficult.
"I talked to two different head coaches today because, truthfully, one of them is my friend and he's already heard that one of his (players) may be going in the portal and look at Auburn," Freeze said. "It tests your friendships. It's awkward. It's uncomfortable. Having to recruit your own locker room is very, very challenging. All of us are like 'Can we please just get some type of regulations around it to where we're somewhat protected with the guys in your locker room?' None of use are fighting the new world of revenue sharing or any of that, but we've got to have something where there's equal buy-in on both sides. Hopefully, that will come sooner rather than later."