Hugh Freeze fended off Oregon and Ohio State in the same week to maintain two of his most important Auburn assistant football coaches.
First, Freeze denied Ohio State's advances at DJ Durkin -- making Durkin one of the highest-paid defensive coordinators in the country on a level similar to OSU-turned-Penn State DC Jim Knowles.
Then, on Thursday night, Rivals' Brian Stultz reported that Freeze didn't let WR coach Marcus Davis go to Oregon.
"Sources say Oregon was interested in Auburn wide receiver coach Marcus Davis, but the Tigers got a deal done today to keep Davis on the Plains," Stultz tweeted.
In any era, holding onto an assistant when Ohio State comes knocking at the door would be impressive. With NIL, doing so against the Buckeyes and the Ducks is an epic victory that vaults the Tigers into elite spender territory.
Ohio State famously won the 2024/2025 College Football Playoff National Championship after running through the first-ever 12-team playoff with a $20 million roster. Oregon famously has Nike founder Phil Knight throwing money around on the program's facilities and infamous uniforms.
Auburn is no small-spender but it doesn't contend with those titans, plus Texas and Michigan. In fact, practically no one else in the SEC does. That's what's caused an imbalance in championship runs over the past two seasons.
One would think that trend can't be reversed, but it can. Georgia was a back-to-back national champion in 2021 and 2022 during the NIL era's first two seasons. And Kirby Smart did that by conservatively spending.
Auburn clearly can outspend the sport's biggest financial power player. Now they just need to bring their talent together like Smart did in Athens and rise to the top of the sport.
Easier said than done. But Freeze is getting the off-field wins that often lead to that.