Hugh Freeze has plenty of experience under his belt, including SEC experience.

But coaching at Auburn has brought on a new set of challenges. Freeze addressed some of those challenges Wednesday, pointing to fans having high expectations and trying to get a young team ready to play in a tough, experienced conference.

“This one is certainly very challenging,” Freeze said during the SEC coaches teleconference Wednesday. “The one at Ole Miss was similar, expectations may have not been as high as they are here, which adds a little pressure to you sometimes. But I mean we’ve got a team that 11 of the 22 starters at LSU had never started an SEC game prior to this season, and only 5 of the 22 have made an SEC start in 3 seasons. So it’s the growing pains and can we coach better? Yes. Hopefully we can play better. We’ve seen signs of it, but we’re very, I think we’re a young team and one that has very little experience playing in this league and it really shows up on the road, it seems, so far to this point. So thankful that we seem to be a little more comfortable at home and we’ll need Jordan-Hare to be at its best the next few weeks.”

Auburn has had a shaky year, but has shown flashes of greatness. The Tigers took Georgia down to the wire just a few weeks ago. Once Freeze and his staff have a complete roster, Auburn should be able to make noise in the SEC.

After losing to LSU last week, Auburn has another tough one this weekend as it takes on Ole Miss.