Paul Finebaum has a positive outlook for Hugh Freeze and Auburn.

Finebaum believes that it was a productive first year for Freeze with the Tigers and that the program is heading in the right direction. Despite an embarrassing loss to New Mexico State, Finebaum thinks it’s been an ideal first year for Freeze.

“I feel great about the future under Hugh Freeze,” Finebaum said on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “New Mexico State game didn’t phase me as you all know because we talked about it privately. I just felt like it was just something that happens in the first year, and I think talking to Hugh on Friday afternoon, he was embarrassed by it, but he also knew not to dwell on it. And I think it’s a little bit more in today’s athletes that they don’t view games the same way we do. I think he was able to channel that disappointment and just focus on the Alabama game, and I thought he did a really good job of preparation.”

Finebaum said that the feeling on Auburn’s campus is a positive one.

“It didn’t feel, being on that campus for 2 days, it didn’t feel like a program that has really gone nowhere for the last couple years,” Finebaum said. “It felt like an Alabama-Auburn game that was really for something more than just bragging rights. I felt like Auburn’s program had advanced.”

Finebaum also said that he likes what Freeze is doing recruiting wise and that he can tell people in Alabama’s program are getting concerned that Auburn is on the rise.