Hugh Freeze ‘amazed’ more coaches don’t call about transfer information
The transfer portal can be a free-for-all for programs and coaches as players come and go from their teams. Those circumstances are why Hugh Freeze is confused, though, considering how few of them check in, at least with him, in order to lessen some of the involved unknowns.
Freeze spoke about what Auburn looks for in the portal during an appearance on ‘McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning’ on Wednesday last week. In his response, he shared that it surprises him that more staffs don’t call the Tigers to ask question about former players of theirs that they take transfer commitments from.
“I’m amazed, Greg. I’m going to get on the phone with every head coach that he has been with. Or a coach that I know, somebody on our staff (knows). I’m amazed I get no phone calls, really, from guys of ours that go in the portal,” said Freeze. “It just amazes me that – I shouldn’t say none.”
“Still, I don’t care if I know you or not,” Freeze said. “I want to know because you got like 24 hours to really be around this person.”
The mystery of who some teams take on is just something that Freeze doesn’t understand. In Auburn’s case, he explained that he and and his staff research as much as they can before bringing in a transfer from the portal if for no other reason than to maintain the culture in their building.
“I think our whole deal is, man, alright – Personnel, who are you calling? Position coach, who are you calling? Who am I calling?” Freeze said. “Let’s gather as much as we can before we make this decision because it’s going to be a part of our culture, whatever we bring into it. So we try to do it that way.”
The Tigers are bringing in the No. 11 class of transfers per On3’s 2024 Team Transfer Portal Rankings. It includes 14 commitments for the program with five coming in following the spring. That quintet from the last month had four commit over the the course of four days. It also has a pair of their highest-rated additions in Penn State WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Indiana DE Philip Blidi. Both are in the Top-175 overall and Top-25 at their positions in On3’s 2024 Transfer Portal Top Players.
This comes after 24 players left The Plains over the course of the offseason. None of those ranked in the Top-300 of On3’s Ranking. 13 of those have committed to new programs with 11 others still in the portal.
Some players are elite enough to be takes for a program regardless of background information. Still, the overall lack of details during the process is a bit of a shock, at least to Freeze when it comes to his former players going elsewhere.