Hugh Freeze sends message to Nick Saban, Alabama as new Auburn HC

Hugh Freeze was introduced as the new Auburn football coach on Tuesday and he had a message for Nick Saban and the rival Alabama Crimson Tide. 

The decision of the Auburn Tigers to hire Hugh Freeze as their next head coach after firing Bryan Harsin midseason has been met with heavy (and rightful) criticism given his transgressions both at Ole Miss and even at Liberty with his direct message activity. But you can boil down the decision at Auburn to one thing: They want to win football games.

Hugh Freeze, without exception, knows how to do that.

Coming into the program after the Tigers finished just 5-7 and were blown out in the Iron Bowl by rival Alabama under the ever-watchful eye of Nick Saban. Freeze, however, got one up on Saban a couple of times while at Ole Miss and the Tigers faithful are hoping for more of the same now. And that seems to be something the new head coach is aware of.

While he called Nick Saban and his wife Terry “friends”, Freeze had a simple message for Alabama and its head coach as he was introduced as the new Auburn head coach on Tuesday. Simply, he’s hoping that this hire has them shaking in their boots a bit.

Hugh Freeze on Nick Saban and Alabama: ‘I hope they’re a little nervous’

Outside of an Oatmeal Creme Pie shortage, I’m not sure there’s much in this world that would actually make Saban nervous. With that being said, Freeze coming to Auburn in strictly a football sense is a move that could elevate the Tigers quickly to challenging the Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl and perhaps otherwise as well.

At both Ole Miss and Liberty, Freeze was aggressive and successful in the transfer portal, which will likely be his first avenue to explore now that he has the job with the Tigers. And with the NIL money that the boosters have lying in wait, he’ll have resources to do an exemplary job there, something akin to Brian Kelly finding immediate success at LSU in the 2022 season.

On top of that, Freeze — albeit with some misdeeds in doing so — was an excellent recruiter in the SEC at Ole Miss. Now he has a program that simply attracts better talent and with better resources behind him to land better prospects. That could deepen the talent pool at Auburn quickly as well.

This isn’t to say that Freeze and Auburn are now going to surpass Nick Saban and Alabama. But after watching how non-competitive the Tigers were by their standards under Harsin, this hire feels like one that has them at least heading towards being worth mentioning in the same conversation.

So no, Nick Saban probably isn’t a little nervous on Tuesday. But once Freeze gets to work, there might be a bead of sweat that starts to form in the offices in Tuscaloosa.

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