Auburn head football coach Hugh Freeze doesn't think Paul Finebaum, and similar talking heads, understand the nuances of NIL in the modern recruiting landscape.
Freeze called out Finebaum by name for criticizing him for not signing every in-state receiver, given that he has already committed to time and salary for players already on the program's payroll. He also took issue with criticism of his golfing habits.
To Freeze, Finebaum and his ilk are assuming things are still like the old days, when in reality, college football functions more like pro sports. Freeze hammered home the point by using Jackson Arnold and Deuce Knight as an example of why he wouldn't get another quarterback.
"The other thing that nobody talks about–and y’all may, I don’t listen to much–I’m not on social media, my daughter does it… ‘Well, Freeze is not getting this receiver in-state.’ Do y’all realize, on paper, I am not losing a single receiver? This is not like the old days where you sign 25 guys and then figure out who the 85 are. This is actually a salary cap world and I like our receiver room. How do I go and make offers to receivers at numbers that these other schools are when, come January, I kind of want to keep the one I have. I don’t think the Finebaum’s of the world or any of them think about all of that. They just say he’s playing golf and not recruiting," Freeze told David Pollack on the “See Ball Get Ball” podcast, per On3.
“There are just a lot of dynamics into it right now. I’m confident that our staff–we have not changed a single approach with our recruiting, people love it when they come to Auburn. But, there are just a lot of dynamics that go into their decisions currently. Come August 1, everybody has to put this in writing now and we will see where everything shakes out after that. How in the world are you going to convince a third 5-star quarterback to come to you when you have Jackson Arnold and Deuce Knight? If we’re really operating under a true salary cap where we have no idea what an NIL value is until they decide that, which is our interpretation of the new rules, how do you do that?"
Freeze's recruiting may be over-scrutinized right now, but given the number of high-level recruits he brought on that ended up elsewhere in short order, perhaps he was being overrated before.
His results on the field don't speak for themselves. Not in a good way, anyway.
He doesn't get the benefit of the doubt from people like Finebaum. That's earned by not making him look like a fool for having faith in the Tigers the last two years.