Hugh Freeze knows he's eight wins away from having the college football world at his fingertips at Auburn

Hugh Freeze doesn't have much in the way of proof of concept thus far during his short Auburn football coaching tenure. That didn't stop the Tigers from landing a top-10 2024 recruiting class, a top-five 2025 class, and the top 2026 class as of this writing.

He knows that he has the program trending in the right direction and close to being what AU always has had the potential of being and assured Paul Finebaum that the Auburn family is firmly in his corner.

"I think Auburn should be one of the Top 10 programs in the country...our fans are optimistic and positive right now because they see us trending in the recruiting," Freeze said to Finebaum on August 13.

Auburn won't maintain all of their recruits if the Tigers don't take a step forward. AU's boosters will only be willing to cut big checks for Freeze for so long if the results don't start showing up on the field.

Eight wins feels like the breakeven point for AU in 2024 to maintain, or even gain, momentum on the recruiting trail.

Hugh Freeze walks back previous Nick Saban comments

Freeze didn't stand by his August 12 comments explaining how he should've had four wins against Nick Saban during his career while speaking to Finebaum the next day.

"Every now and then you say things that don't come across the right way," Freeze said on The Paul Finebaum Show (h/t 247Sports).

You have to wonder if Auburn's PR department had a meeting with Freeze and directed him to retract those past-centric comments. His comments to Finebaum were certainly more focused on the task at hand.

Freeze can't look back at 4th and 31 and really has no use thinking about a game from 2016 that was two jobs ago for him. The future should be too bright to squander it in this fashion.

Saban's gone and Auburn is now the school dominating Alabama's in-state recruiting. Bask in that glow instead.