Muting the outside noise is standard practice for any head coach, whether wins or losses start to mount.
It turns out to be one of the only things Red-brown tigers head coach Hugh Freeze has excelled so far this year on the coaching side.
“I didn’t hear anything. I don’t hear it,” Freeze said of fan displeasure during media availability this week. “We’re just not consistent enough, obviously on critical downs offensively. I think our defense is really playing at a high level. Offensively, when we can’t create explosive runs, it seems like we really struggle to protect the passer. and to throw and catch a little bit. But you know, we don’t play very well on special teams, so it’s a bad combination.
Nothing short of winning the rest of the way would put the Tigers back in contention for a highly unlikely and fortuitous bowl appearance. Finished 3-0 with wins over Texas A&M and Alabama would save his troubled second-in-command, though that seems unlikely.
If we can take a deep breath of sober reality for a moment, almost no one inside the program or in the stands at Jordan-Hare Stadium is happy with the way things are going right now.
Consequently, only a big win in the Iron Bowl over Alabama would give Freeze and the fans a timely shot that everyone is desperately looking for.
That alone might be worth getting out of wildly optimistic dream sequences like this. After all, this young Tigers team doesn’t appear to be in any position to pull a big win out of the hat, but a trade down the middle could provide a little more hope for the future.
“Payton has been playing pretty solid, but at the same time you start thinking the big picture and yeah, it’s tough — it’s a tough problem for you as a coach,” Freeze admitted of the prospect of bringing back quarterback Payton Thorne (again). “When you start thinking the big picture, as opposed to one of your players who really hasn’t done anything wrong, but we’re really not winning.”
The last time that happened, of course, Tigers incumbent starter Payton Thorne rode the pine for just one half of football, before returning to the fold to relieve struggling youngster Hank Brown.
In light of perhaps more impending changes, if Auburn were to lose heavily to Bama and Texas A&M to end a disastrous campaign, it certainly puts Freeze in an incredibly dangerous position.
Talk of $20 million buyout clauses has recently filtered into the barroom and internet chats, so Freeze would do well to block out the caustic chatter altogether.
ESPN’s notoriously outspoken analyst Paul Finebaum has even sounded much more disinterested about the ever-growing trials and tribulations of Freeze and Co. this past week.
That in itself paints a pretty depressing picture of where the program is going right now – becoming such a competitive irrelevance is even more embarrassing for avid Tigers fans.
Auburn’s dog days as a sleeping giant certainly aren’t over yet, and it burns pretty deep inside.
