Hugh Freeze doubles down on defense of him playing golf during Auburn's offseason

With just under two months until the regular season kicks off, Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze has found himself facing mounting criticism. In particular, he’s been heavily criticized both for his lack of success on the recruiting trail and the amount of golf he has seemed to play during the offseason.

Since the criticism initially arose, Freeze has consistently defended the amount of golf he’s played. Nothing changed at SEC Media Days when he doubled down on that defense.

“I really hadn’t had to defend it,” Hugh Freeze said. “It’s something I enjoy doing, but I assure you it does not take away from my time working to take Auburn back to the top of the college football world.”

Hugh Freeze has, undeniably, golfed plenty during the offseason. A report from the end of June showed that Freeze golfed 10 times that month alone. It also showed that he has played more than 20 rounds throughout the calendar year, and has a fairly impressive handicap of 7.4. Compared to Kirby Smart and Kalen DeBoer, the head coaches at Auburn’s two biggest rivals, that’s a lot. Smart and DeBoer had combined for six rounds total, all of which DeBoer played. However, DeBoer’s handicap is 20.4 and Smart’s sits at 12.6.

There likely would be no issue with the amount of golf Freeze has played if it weren’t for the recruiting struggles. Auburn currently has the 66th-ranked recruiting class in the country for the 2026 recruiting cycle, with just nine commits. That’s currently 16th in the SEC. Nothing is over yet, but that’s not good enough, and even in a recruiting dead period it’s made the golf stand out even more to many fans.

Going into his third season at Auburn, Freeze has an 11-14 record overall and a 5-11 record in SEC play. The Tigers would miss a bowl game entirely in 2024.

Even Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has seemingly been trolling Hugh Freeze online. That included a post where Kiffin praised his golf game, saying, “Great job Coach!! Game is on” with a fire emoji at the end. So, the jokes aren’t just coming from fans.

Hugh Freeze fires back at Lane Kiffin over jab about his golf game

Hugh Freeze seems to have taken the trolling from Lane Kiffin in his stride. He even took the time to fire back at the Ole Miss coach.

“Hugh Freeze was ready Tuesday for the golf questions and some of Lane Kiffin’s social media barbs on the amount of golf Freeze has played this offseason. ‘Tell him I shot 66 eight times,’ Freeze said laughing,” ESPN’s Chris Low shared.

It’s clear that Freeze isn’t going to publicly admit he’s bothered by criticism of his golf game. However, he does need to find a way to take a major leap forward in 2025 and the pressure is going to grow worse if the Tigers don’t quickly prove themselves.