Auburn Tigers football coach Hugh Freeze hasn't had much success on the gridiron in his two seasons, but he has recruited up a storm for several cycles.
By all accounts, he has every right to say his team can win any game with the talent in tow and, for more than half the season, the Jordan-Hare Stadium home-field advantage.
Finally, in an address to the media, Freeze puffed out his chest and declared AU can beat any opponent put him front of them.
"We’re expectant of being a really good football team that competes in every game and has a chance to win every game," Freeze said during his Wednesday morning press conference. "I’m teaching, ‘A proverb a day, keeps stupid away’ during camp and hopefully that impacts all of us in life and in football. The overriding theme is expectant, so I’m glad the kids are listening, and they feel the same.”
In May, Freeze put his foot in his mouth by saying the Tigers should be expected to reach a bowl game; something only six wins accomplish.
“I’m not a fool. I think we’ve got to go to a bowl game," Freeze said initially when setting expectations for the 2025 season.
Freeze is not a fool. Fool him once, shame on all of us for thinking he meant his team will win six games. There was no fooling the Oxford, Mississippi, native a second time.
He couldn't make that mistake again. Good thing he didn't.
With the Baylor Bears' matchup odds in Week 1 shifting away from Auburn, there are doubts about whether Freeze will finish this season on the sidelines. DJ Durkin looms as a potential interim head coach fill-in if things go awry, and this offseason has seen controversy after controversy -- from Freeze's golf addiction going viral to the Malcolm Simmons domestic violence charges.
If he ends up with a first-way ticket out of East Central Alabama, Freeze won't have done it by asking fans to expect little and be satisfied with mediocrity.
He's clearly learned that lesson.