Hugh Freeze addresses illness, how long his absence from Auburn football was

Hugh Freeze overcame an illness to make it to Lexington, Kentucky and oversee his Auburn football team whoop the Wildcats at Kroger Field. As it turns out, though, the illness only prevented Friday night preparation. The Tigers had a 6:45 CT start, so Freeze got back in time to coach up his players, who scored 24 straight to notch their first SEC win since November 2023.

“The only thing that really was different was Friday. I wasn’t in the team meetings at the hotel Friday night. I told our football administrator that we might need to just do that every Saturday — just whatever works,” Freeze said (h/t On3). “That’s the only thing that was different. I got here today for all our meetings. So, the Friday meeting would have been miserable for everybody if I had tried to travel yesterday with them. But nothing was really different other than I missed the Friday night meetings.”

Freeze downplaying his illness was a much different attitude than his typical demeanor all season. But if he has the team on the right track now, he has a chance to immediately buy goodwill with a fanbase that has been jaded due to the fashion AU has been losing.

Auburn football's offense must run through Jarquez Hunter in Tigers' last four games

278 yards? 12.1 yards per carry? Yeah, Tiger fans have seen enough of the alternative. Get Hunter the ball as much as humanly possible in his last month on the Plains. Having been a Class of 2021 commit, Hunter is out of eligibility and can't keep extending it like Class of 2020 and pre-COVID recruits have been doing.

To be fair, even if he and Freeze wanted to explore the graduate route, Hunter is a bigger blip on NFL draft radars now following the Kentucky win.

Four games remain for one of Bryan Harsin's only significant additions. Feed that man before you can't, Freeze.