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Hugh Freeze reflects on Liberty beating Arkansas, describes motivation he uses
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Hugh Freeze hadn’t coached in the SEC since 2016 before this season, but the Auburn head coach still got a win over Arkansas very recently.
Last season when he was at Liberty, Freeze took his team to Arkansas and pulled off a huge upset, beating the Razorbacks 21-19. The Flames weren’t supposed to win the game, but that didn’t matter to Freeze.
Before that game, Freeze was used to miserable experiences in Arkansas filled with bad weather, but last year the sun was shining.
“We had come off of a big win against BYU and I believe it was after an open week that we travelled to Arkansas,” Freeze said in his press conference Monday. “The first thing I was concerned about was my experience against Arkansas in November has not been pleasant. The 2 times that we went there when I was at Ole Miss, the weather was atrocious. I was just thankful that when we went at Liberty it was actually a nice day and it appears this Saturday is gonna be fairly nice.”
Freeze was up front with his team ahead of the game, reminding them that they were the underdog and had no businesses knocking off an SEC team, but it was in the name of motivation.
“I tell our teams the truth, and I remember telling them, listen you’re the underdog, you shouldn’t win this game, but that’s what makes it fun, to go in and give it a shot,” Freeze said. “And you don’t have to be better 10 times, you just have to be better that one day. I can’t remember exactly what our theme was that week, but our kids played really hard that day and stopped the run pretty much. That’s something we need to do this week also.”
This week, Freeze is looking for similar success as he takes on the Razorbacks. A win would give Auburn bowl eligibility.
