Auburn head football coach Hugh Freeze defended himself against accusations that golf, not recruiting, has taken up too much of his time this offseason during a discussion with former Georgia star David Pollack.
Freeze claimed his only concern this fall will be the Tigers getting right in the standings after two uneven losing seasons.
The Oxford, Mississippi, native made it clear his SEC Media Days speech won't address this same issue.
"I really have never been a big planner for that. I like to be transparent and truthful. This is the time when people are looking for things to write about and I do love golf, I enjoy playing. What people don’t realize–I assure you I never missed a camp day or a recruiting day. But, if camp got over at 3 pm one day, and Jill and I go out at 4:30, we absolutely might do that–and I’m not apologizing for that part of it. My focus is 100 percent on getting Auburn in that win column this fall," Freeze said on Thursday's “See Ball Get Ball” podcast, per On3.
“I think the biggest thing causing most of it is the recruiting rankings right now because we have been top ten my two years here in recruiting and currently we are not. Good lord, we could spend 30 minutes on why I think that is, but there are a lot of people right now who are operating under a different set of rules on what their interpretation is of this settlement and how you should operate. I’m going to operate in the manner that our administration has interpreted it. We will see–I think it is a long game play for us that I think is going to work out in our favor because we are doing it very transparent and the way we believe the settlement is written to operate if that makes sense."
Freeze is clearly not okay with his work ethic being questioned. He's also not fond of the wild swing in mood after hitting a snag in recruiting this past June.
He didn't buy himself grace with his first two seasons, though.
The summer golf aesthetic just looks better after a successful year.