Hugh Freeze Assures Auburn Recruiting Will Bounce Back to Top-10

Things have not gone Auburn football’s way thus far in terms of recruiting. The Tigers, led by Hugh Freeze, have managed to scrape together seven total commits, good for 85th in the nation– a far cry from the top-10 classes Freeze has put together over the past two years.

Despite this, Freeze seems incredibly confident in his staff’s ability to bring in recruits, especially after he’s able to use third-party dollars, starting Aug 1.

“We're talking about a staff that's put together two top 10 classes,” Freeze said. “And here we are, we're really not in that realm right now. Do I think we will be in December? I do. I believe that wholeheartedly. We had over 50 visits in June, and I thought, you know, those families felt like, man, this is a great place to be.”

Freeze believes revenue sharing– and other teams’ reluctance to adhere to Freeze’s interpretation of the admittedly vague guidelines– are the biggest roadblocks in his recruiting right now, though he’s previously stated that he’s sure anyone who’s not playing by the rules will be “called out.”

Additionally, Freeze cites revenue sharing as the primary cause of his recruiting struggles, stating he’s only using the salary cap, and that “If my understanding is correct, from everything we've heard, the penalties for going over the cap are not fun.”

He’s not taking any chances with the rules.

“Once things shake out and everybody knows what the reality of revenue sharing and outside NIL bills and all of that,” Freeze said, “I think once we get to the facts of all of that, I think we'll be in the game for many top players.”

He’s certainly got his work cut out for him, but his confidence is certainly there, so maybe, just maybe, he knows something we don’t. We’ll see what he does.

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