1. I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but …

Some nights he lays in bed and stares at the ceiling, wondering how in the world this thing is going to work.

In a sport that demands consistency and chemistry, Auburn will begin fall camp next month with nearly half (42) of its 85 scholarship players who have never played for the Tigers.

That’s 22 high school recruits and 20 transfer portal players. It took new coach Hugh Freeze and his staff a little more than 4 months to wrangle it all together in anticipation of his return the meat grinder SEC.

Will it work? If it does, it will be the greatest coaching job in Auburn history.

“You wake up in the middle of the night and ask yourself, does my way still work?” Freeze said.

The nights are punishing, Freeze pacing through his home and replaying long conversations in his head while staring through the window at the dark nothingness of 3 a.m.

He has been here before, you know — where it’s so quiet and the inevitable is so present, the gears grinding in his head are the only thing that drowns out the anxiety.

He willingly came back to the SEC for this.

Auburn, the school that can’t historically get out of its own way and late last year blew another coaching hire (and/or fire), stumbled into the 1 guy who may be able to get them out of the mess they created.

And only because they chose the 1 guy who has been through worse.

There’s not an obstacle Freeze hasn’t faced in 30 years of coaching football. From humble beginnings as a high school coach in Eads, Tenn., to NAIA coach at Lambuth, to Arkansas State, to the easy rise and hard fall at Ole Miss, to personal and professional reclamation at Liberty.

Now he’s all the way back, staring at the demon that is SEC football: the 1 conference that puts coaches in constant conflict of doing what’s right.

Because what’s right and what leads to wins are 2 distinctly different things. And before you screech about Freeze and his own demons, you better believe he lives with it every single day.

His were laid bare for all to see 6 years ago this month at SEC Media Days, where Freeze will be next week with Auburn — for the 1st time since the drama that played out there directly led to his resignation at Ole Miss.

He’s coaching again in the league he loves, and he’s trying to find ways to coach and develop players, and draw up some good ball plays that just might beat Nick Saban again. But this is nothing like it was at Ole Miss, where his 5-year run included 2 wins over Saban and Alabama.

His 3 best offensive linemen at Auburn are from the portal. He has 3 players on the defensive line who could be difference makers, and all 3 are from the portal.

More than half the of the starting 22 will likely be portal additions, and none of those guys knew each other — much less Freeze and his staff — before walking into the Woltosz Performance Center.

“Does culture and team, building and playing a little better than maybe we really are, do they still work?” Freeze said.

2. Building trust

Can Freeze win now, you ask? He’s working on it.

And it begins with the most important position on the field.

Freeze made strong SEC quarterbacks out of Bo Wallace and Chad Kelly at Ole Miss. He made a Day 2 NFL Draft pick out of Malik Willis at Liberty.

Freeze’s offensive coordinator and QBs coach Philip Montgomery coached and developed Robert Griffin III and Bryce Petty at Baylor.

They certainly can work with Payton Thorne, a 2-year starter at Michigan State who didn’t officially commit to Auburn until the 1st week of May.

But here’s the rub: Thorne is coming in blind.

New team, new structure, new offense, new terminology, new expectations, new league.

He spent 3 uneven seasons at Michigan State — and he knew Big Ten teams and their personnel and their schemes and tendencies. He knows nothing about the SEC.

He’ll be protected by an offensive line that has never played together, and whose tackles played last season at Tulsa (Dillon Wade) and Western Kentucky (Gunner Britton). Auburn’s center, who will make check calls and who is the quarterback of the offensive line, played last season at East Carolina.

Two of the 3 starting receivers are transfers, as is the tight end. That means 7 of the 11 starters are transfers, and 5 of the starting 11 on defense are from the portal.

You can almost hear the gears grinding in Freeze’s head.

3. The ugly truth, The Epilogue

This isn’t the Pac-12, where new Colorado coach Deion Sanders is trying to get away with a complete overhaul of the roster. Or the Big 12, where TCU rebuilt its team in a year and landed in the Playoff.

This is the SEC, and everyone involved is arrogant and annoying for a reason. The best teams, the best players, the most NFL Draft picks.

Every single season.

“I get a kick out of guys who haven’t coached in this league, and they say well, our league is just as tough,” Freeze said. “Then you get in this thing, and that tune quickly changes.”

He’s not only trying to turn it around Auburn — which has won a national title and played for another in the past 13 years — he’s doing so with the backdrop of why not now?

TCU went 5-7 in 2021 and played in the national title game in 2022. Who cares if the Frogs then folded quicker than the French Army in the Battle of France.

Or that at least 4 SEC teams in 2022 would’ve done the same to TCU in the same situation — and Auburn plays 3 of them in 2023 (Alabama, Georgia, LSU).

Freeze is grinding through this offseason because the last time he was in the SEC, he built a program that knew each other and played for and with each other — and were led by charismatic quarterbacks (Wallace and Kelly) the locker room knew and rallied around.

Everything is new at Auburn. The coaches, the players, the systems and the buy-in.

With 1 defining carryover: expectations.

“All of those things are going through your mind when you have a team that we really tried to transform in a few months,” Freeze said. “Now we have to blend it together in a short amount of time to compete in the toughest conference in America. I’ve never had to do that before, and so it certainly is something that weights on my mind, for sure.

“It’s going to be a challenge for myself, our staff and our locker room.”

If Freeze pulls this off, if Auburn wins 8 games and is competitive in November, it will be the greatest coaching job in the history of the school.

4. The final season

Texas and Oklahoma will arrive at their final Big 12 Media Days this week, the ceremonial 1-year point from their arrival in the SEC in 2024.

The final season in the Big 12 is critical for both schools, if for no other reason than recruiting momentum.

Texas produced back-to-back top-5 recruiting classes in 2022-23 according to the 247Sports composite, and Oklahoma had a top-5 class in 2023 and a top 10 in 2022.

Neither is in the top 10 for the 2024 class, though both are still a factor in numerous uncommitted blue-chip recruits. Texas (13 commits) is No. 19, and Oklahoma (11 commits) No. 39.

It’s no longer “early” in the 2024 process. The June and July months are typically where teams try to fill a majority of their signing classes.

Georgia, currently No. 1 in the 2024 class, already has 26 commitments. Florida (17 commits) is No. 3, Texas A&M (16) is No. 9 and LSU (18) is No. 10.

The outlier is Alabama, which has 12 commits and a No. 14 ranking. The Tide, though, typically close strong.

5. The Weekly 5

The top 5 games that stress the Kentucky win total (6.5) for 2023:

1. Oct. 14, Missouri: There are 2 gotta-have-it SEC games: at Vanderbilt and Missouri. The Tigers’ front 7 on defense will be a problem for the UK offensive line.

2. Sept. 30, Florida: As odd as it sounds, Kentucky has taken hold of this series (winning 3 of the past 5), and has physically imposed its will on the Gators in 4 of those 5.

3. Nov. 25, at Louisville: Alum Jeff Brohm has taken over at Louisville and walks into a rivalry where UK has won the past 4 games by 46, 32, 31 and 13 points.

4. Oct. 28, Tennessee: The key question: Was last year’s ugly loss an anomaly (the previous 3 would indicate as much), or a new trend under Vols coach Josh Heupel?

5. Nov. 18, at South Carolina: UK has won 7 of the past 9 in the series but lost last year in Lexington with backup freshman QB Kaiya Sheron.

6. Your tape is your resume

An NFL scout analyzes a draft-eligible SEC player. This week: Texas A&M DE Shemar Turner.

“Looks the part, but needs to play with more consistency. I watch him, and he has everything you need to dominate. He’s long, and he has strong, active hands. He has good point to point explosion. All of those things need to be more consistent. He’ll go plays where he’s not active, and should be. I want to see him chase more, too. Go get the play if it’s on the backside.”

7. Powered Up

This week’s Power Poll, and 1 big thing: biggest storyline in next week’s SEC Media Days:

1. Georgia: Which has a greater impact on 2023: The strained offseason of poor player behavior or the new quarterback (Carson Beck) and OC (Mike Bobo)?

2. LSU: If LSU truly is a legitimate SEC and Playoff contender, QB Jayden Daniels needs an elite season in 2023.

3. Tennessee: Forget about the quarterback, all of Heupel’s quarterbacks historically play well. Can the Tennessee defense take a championship step?

4. Alabama: Don’t automatically assume it’s QB Tyler Buchner’s job to lose. While Alabama wouldn’t need him if Jalen Milroe or Ty Simpson had taken control, this competition is far from over.

5. Texas A&M: Try as he might, Jimbo Fisher can’t seem to avoid the spotlight. He’s the offseason story again, this time with the new and eccentric combination of 2 of the largest egos in college football: Fisher and new OC Bob Petrino.

6. Ole Miss: Why did Kiffin stay in Oxford again? Because he’s quickly proving you can recruit (high school and portal) to Ole Miss. Next up: winning games of significance.

7. Kentucky: OC and play-caller Liam Coen is back in Lexington and has another project: former NC State QB Devin Leary. If Leary plays like he did in 2021, the loaded UK offense (yes, loaded) is going to cause problems for everyone.

8. Arkansas: The Arkansas faithful love coach Sam Pittman. He loves them right back. Can the perfect fit get it back after a 2022 when the Hogs lost 4 games they could’ve — and probably should’ve — won?

9. South Carolina: There’s a whole lot of hype and hope in Columbia with coach Shane Beamer. Now comes the difficult part: expectations — and getting QB Spencer Rattler to play his best.

10. Mississippi State: There’s nothing fancy new coach about Zach Arnett. Can the Bulldogs become a mirror image of their coach, and win on substance?

11. Florida: No matter how or why it happened, months of work in high school recruiting and the transfer portal produced enigmatic Wisconsin transfer QB Graham Mertz. And nothing else. How does Florida move forward?

12. Auburn: Here’s the thing about Auburn’s 20 transfers from the portal: the majority will make an impact and play immediately. In some cases, they’re that good. In others, Auburn has nothing else.

13. Missouri: Eli Drinkwitz was hired because of his offensive acumen, and the Tigers have been pedestrian at best. This team is desperate for a QB with arm talent and leadership charisma.

14. Vanderbilt: The Commodores are going to throw it all over the field with QB AJ Swann. Can the defense stop anyone?

8. Ask and you shall receive

Matt: I’m trying to figure out why Lane Kiffin jumped in late and signed Austin Simmons. Is it possible he signed Simmons to block Florida from getting him? Is it that petty? — Jill Dickey, Palm Beach, Fla.

Jill:

Kiffin isn’t doing anything out of spite, and he’s certainly not wasting a valuable scholarship on a block maneuver. He signed Simmons because he thinks Simmons can help him win games this season and beyond. Period.

The quarterback room already is full. Jaxson Dart played well in the spring, and Spencer Sanders did, too — when healthy. Those 2 will more than likely get a majority of the game repetitions.

Walker Howard, the 5-star transfer from LSU, was 3rd in the spring competition. Now here comes Simmons, a rare dual-threat athlete who could have a handful of plays designed specifically for him in each game this season.

If Dart plays well this season, he could leave for the NFL. This is also Sanders’ last season of college football.

That leaves Howard and Simmons — and whoever else Kiffin adds to the room — to compete for the 2024 starting job. It wasn’t a signing to block Florida; it was a signing to strengthen the future of the position at Ole Miss.

9. Numbers

43.9. LSU coach Brian Kelly has talked all offseason about QB Jayden Daniels becoming an elite quarterback. If that’s the case, he must improve his conversion percentage on 3rd-down throws.

Of Daniels’ 82 attempts on 3rd down in 2022, he converted 36 for first downs (43.9%). That number was up nearly 10% from his first 3 seasons at Arizona State (34.4%).

By comparison, Georgia QB Stetson Bennett IV converted 50% of his 3rd-down throws in 2022, and Alabama QB Mac Jones converted 51.3 of his 3rd-down throws in 2020.

10. Quote to note

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman: “I don’t know if I’d want to play a whole bunch of Power 5 teams after playing a 9-game SEC schedule.”