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Hugh Freeze beams about Eugene Asante’s inspirational journey
By Rolando Rosa
Published:
Hugh Freeze showed major love to junior linebacker Eugene Asante during a recent appearance on the SEC Network’s Out of Pocket.
When Asante transferred from North Carolina to Auburn last season, he was a member of the scout team. However when injuries occurred early this season, Asante was pressed into action and hasn’t looked back.
Asante has notched 40 solo tackles and 3.5 sacks this season, including a team-high 10 tackles in Auburn’s 27-13 victory vs. visiting Mississippi State last weekend.
"I wish everyone would really look at his journey."@CoachHughFreeze on Eugene Asante going from scout player to key player in @AuburnFootball defense ? pic.twitter.com/U8YmsIc6L7
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 1, 2023
“I wish everyone would really look at his journey. This kid is not a starter for us this year. He didn’t start last year. He was on the scout team. Never lost his engagement. Never lost his desire,” Freeze said.”Truthfully, wouldn’t have started for us this year had we not had injuries. All of a sudden we have injuries and the thing that he did was he prepared himself for his opportunity.”
Freeze says that Asante is a testament to the merits of hard work and honing your craft.
“I think sometimes that’s lost now. People want an opportunity but they want it given to them and they’re not prepared because they didn’t engage themselves, whether it’s on scout team or second-team reps,” Freeze said. “Eugene did that. His opportunity came at the Cal game and he just exploded.”
Asante is now also reaping the benefits in terms of NIL.
“Then the benefits that he gets from that are obviously a lot in this day and age. I think he had a very little collective deal at that point,” Freeze said. “The collective now wants to give Eugene a good deal.”
Next up for Auburn is a road contest at Vanderbilt on Saturday (4 p.m. EST/SEC Network).
