Auburn video shows fiery speech from Hugh Freeze prior to home-opener
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Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze reached deep down for a pregame speech to remember before his Tigers faced Ball State in their home-opener last Saturday night.
Freeze has gotten a heavy dose of criticism during his first 2 seasons at Auburn, which both ended with losing records. Freeze carried an 11-14 record at Auburn into the 2025 season, and the pressure is on to win and win now. That’s what Auburn has done so far, going 2-0 and entering the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2021.
That’s well and good, and Freeze will take it. The Tigers are ranked 24th now going into their Week 3 home matchup with South Alabama. But Freeze had a message for his team before it went out and pounded Ball State, 42-3, at Jordan-Hare Stadium. He wanted all of his players to know how important it was that they play as hard as possible because they owed it to the fans who drove many hours and saved lots of money for that 1 game, just to get into the stadium to see them perform at the highest level.
“Tonight, I submit to you that there’s some family that drove from I-don’t-know-where, parked 5 miles away from this stadium, saved all freaking year long just to buy a ticket to climb to the top of that stadium and watch your tail play,” Freeze said. “You owe them something!”
Here is the fiery 48-second clip of Freeze’s speech that was released on Tuesday by WarEagle+:
Clearly, the speech worked. Auburn only allowed a 3rd-quarter field goal all night, and quarterback Jackson Arnold went 24 of 28 with 251 yards passing and 3 touchdowns. It was an inspiring performance by the Tigers after an inspiring pregame speech by their head coach.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
