Hugh Freeze, those who stayed and a ‘work in progress’ at Auburn

There’s a unique challenge to roster construction in college football these days. Players come and go in the transfer portal — a system Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin called free agency Thursday at SEC Media Days. And when a head coach goes, free agency can become a free for all as a new administration constructs a roster to their own liking. Players become recruits again as their new coach must convince them to stay. Somehow, that has to all combine from dozens of individuals to 11 teammates on the field who work together.
There, too, are the ones who stayed — some now on their third Auburn head coach. There’s tight end Luke Deal and offensive lineman Kameron Stutts who both came to SEC Media Days with their new head coach Hugh Freeze. Though even returning players have to learn new schemes, new terminology and new people.
So at Auburn, that’s left a roster in uncertainty. Between transfers and true freshmen, there will be at least 40 new players on Auburn’s roster this fall. And Hugh Freeze will have about 30 days to put it all together.
In the immediacy of an approaching season, he’s said this may be his biggest challenge thus far.
“I think our program is a work in progress,” Freeze told local Auburn media members Tuesday. “I think anybody that has followed it will say that. I’m okay with that, and they’ve got to be okay with that.”
When fall camp begins in early August, there will be tape on the player’s helmets. That’s because Freeze still needs to learn everyone’s names. There will be true freshmen arriving for their first semester of college expecting to make an impact and the second wave of transfers Freeze pursued after spring practices had already ended. Because he came after the A-Day spring game, Freeze hasn’t gotten to see transfer quarterback Payton Thorne throw the ball yet.
“I haven’t coached them,” Freeze said. “I haven’t been able to be with them a whole lot, and truthfully it’d be hard to sit here and say I truly know them. Or that they know me. It’s one of the -- I’ve never felt quite like this.”
Awaiting that challenge, Freeze said he went on a trip the week before media days. He said he does this every summer to write his “entire year’s teaching plan.”
His teaching plan this year, though, was quite different than the ones he’d made before because he hasn’t ever had a roster like this. Freeze told television reporters while he’s had success turning around programs like Ole Miss and Liberty quickly, Auburn might be more difficult because he’s never had so many new players to mold into a unit before.
Freeze will admit he doesn’t have all the answers yet. It might mean a team that struggles out the gate of the season in non-conference games against UMass, Cal and Samford.
That leads back, again, to the ones who stayed. They’ll likely be the ones to lead Auburn just as much as the new coaches. That’s why Freeze said he brought Stutts and Deal to Nashville. Neither may be Auburn’s biggest star player, but both will be crucial for their longevity.
“What’s kept me in Auburn,” Stutts asked himself when talking to media Tuesday. “I just love Auburn. They say if you love Auburn, Auburn will love you back.”
Stutts, a Killen, Alabama, native, barely played under head coach Gus Malzahn, before seeing his playing time increase all the way to being a starter with Bryan Harsin. It’s entirely possible Stutts may be the only returning consistent starter on the offensive line this fall.
Deal has never had more than nine catches in a single season at Auburn. Freeze brought in another tight end — Rivaldo Fairweather — out of the transfer portal, but Deal stayed, too.
“I think all three of them are different people personally, but that’s cause I’ve gotten to know three of them personally,” Deal said. “That’s something that in college football, getting to know people, getting to know their background — like I said with our players, it’s no different for coaches. They’re people too.”
Deal added that Freeze has brought a “positive light,” and called that energy refreshing.
But media days are over now. Auburn worked hard to set expectations of uncertainty during this week. Now, though, is when talking season turns to football season.
“There’s no skirting the issue,” Freeze said. “That’s a challenge for us, to try to formulate a team from so many different and new faces in a very short amount of time.”