Hugh Freeze Blames Auburn Recruiting Struggles on Programs who are Cheating the System

USATSI_24417125 (1) — Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

On July 1, Denairius Gray announced he will be a Kentucky Wildcat 18 months after committing to Auburn. The wide receiver was the third four-star recruit Auburn lost in ten days. It’s putting heat on Hugh Freeze, and now the Auburn head coach is firing back at other programs who aren’t playing by the rules.

Freeze and athletic director John Cohen spoke to a group of Tiger fans at an Alabama country club this week, and Auburn’s 78th-ranked recruiting class was a big topic of discussion. Freeze rattled off consecutive Top 10 recruiting classes. Ahead of a pressure-packed third season on The Plains, why does he have the worst recruiting class in the SEC?

“It does seem kind of strange that we’re some of the lowest range of numbers,” Freeze said. “We’re really, really low compared to some and I’m trying to figure that out.”

The numbers he referred to are dollar amounts the school can offer recruits. Recruiting budgets have changed in the new revenue-sharing era, which has created a salary cap for paying players. That does not eliminate NIL dollars. Starting Aug. 1, schools can begin to extend written NIL offers.

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Freeze and Cohen claimed that not every one of their competitors is playing correctly by the rules.

“Let me illustrate,” Cohen continued. “You have an $800,000 offer and the school says we’re gonna give you $400,000 in rev-share, we’re gonna give you $400,000 through a third party. I’m not 100% sure that everybody in the country is operating under that premise, which is reality.”

If the offer does not pass muster with the NIL Go clearinghouse, the school will be on the hook via rev-share, which could ultimately make them go over the salary cap. Schools will be punished if they exceed revenue-sharing limits.

Semantics aside, it’s awfully rich for Hugh Freeze to say that he’s doing things “the right way” while other schools are not. He was one of the best recruiters in the country when you could not legally pay players. Now that it’s legal, he’s having trouble keeping kids committed to Auburn. Funny how that works.

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