Hugh Freeze harps on close calls in message to fans: 'Sickening because we could be sitting here with one loss'

Auburn dropped another heart-breaker, losing to Missouri 23-17 in double overtime on Saturday night. For coach Hugh Freeze and the Tigers, it’s the fourth straight loss.

All have come against ranked league opponents. But that won’t do much to placate fans who had hoped Freeze would turn the Tigers back into perennial contenders in the SEC. That simply hasn’t happened.

Hugh Freeze, perhaps feeling some pressure on his job at this point, was asked after the game what his message to the fans would be. At home on Saturday, they watched a gut-wrenching loss for the second straight week. He knows how close the team has been.

“Sickening because we could be sitting here with one loss,” Freeze said, according to Michael Casagrande of AL.com. And he’s right.

Auburn has lost three of its last four games by a single score. Meanwhile, it lost last weekend’s Georgia contest after dominating the first half.

Hugh Freeze knows those are opportunities he doesn’t get back, though. He was clear on that after the game.

“Listen, we all know what we signed up for,” Freeze said, according to On3’s Justin Hokanson. “I know we fit what Auburn is all about. But Auburn is also about winning football. … We’ve changed the talent level, but at the end of the day, you have to win football games.”

In a coaching carousel cycle that has already proven brutal and been the end of some really good coaches, Hugh Freeze certainly has to be on high alert at this point. In three years now, Freeze’s overall record is just 14-18. He’s 5-15 in SEC play.

Auburn expects better, and the program has proven it can get better in the past. So Freeze knows he has to turn things around in a hurry to survive.

This one was a particularly tough pill to swallow, though, because the Tigers had chances to win it. But the first overtime saw Auburn come up empty after the offense lost yardage and then Alex McPherson missed a field goal.

The team got second life when Missouri missed its own field goal attempt, sending the game to a second overtime. However, Auburn still couldn’t muster much.

After Missouri scored and failed its two-point conversion attempt, Auburn once more had a chance to win it. But the offense turned it over on downs, ending the game and putting Hugh Freeze squarely in the spotlight again.