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

In June, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze came under fire after AL.com reported that he’d played golf 10 times that month, and at least 20 times since the beginning of the year. Many Auburn fans were irate with Freeze, especially since the program had lost three previously committed recruits in June.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin joined in on the discourse, quote tweeting a picture of Freeze winning a golf tournament and writing, “Great job Coach!! Game is on [fire].” Kiffin followed up on his post on Sunday by tagging Freeze in a video of a fishing boat’s stern, with numerous fishing lines in the water.

Many fans interpreted the post as Kiffin saying Freeze can’t land the “big fish” or recruits. At the 2025 SEC Kickoff on Tuesday, Freeze fired back at Kiffin.

“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 wrote on X.

Freeze’s golf game has been one of the most talked-about topics at SEC Media Days this year. While Kiffin took a small jab at Freeze when asked about his inflammatory tweets, he largely downplayed his role in stoking the embers in Auburn.

“I like Coach Freeze,” Kiffin said. “I think they think thought that was something to do with, like, I was fishing and it was golfing. That really wasn’t that. I have a thing with him, going back a few years ago, and he like posted a picture in response to me, of some two-pound bass or something like that.

“So I’ve kind of always posted bigger fish pictures back toward him. So it had nothing to do with his golf game, which it sounds like he’s doing amazing at that. So, that’s great for him… And I was fishing yesterday as a dead period, by the way, just making sure that we’re clear on that. People wanna say that fishing is like golfing. It’s dead period.”

While Freeze is far from the only SEC coach who enjoys hitting the golf course, he seemingly spends more time there than any of the others. For reference, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer had the second-most recorded golf scores in June with just three.

Then again, Beamer isn’t regularly shooting 66’s. Freeze will have a chance to silence his critics on Aug. 29, when the Tigers kick off their 2025 campaign in a showdown against Baylor at 8 p.m. ET. The game will air live on FOX.