ATHENS — Hugh Freeze was out of college football for the 2017 season, so you could forgive him for not being totally plugged in as to what was happening around the sport.
Freeze, now Auburn’s head coach, was speaking about what Georgia head coach Kirby Smart had built in his time in Athens. Georgia has won back-to-back national championships and enters Saturday’s game against Auburn as the No. 1 team in the country.
“I played Kirby his first year when he was still at Ole Miss. I know what he inherited because I coached in that game and I know what the outcome was,” Freeze said at his press conference on Monday. “It’s a great testament to his vision, to his work ethic, to his staff to his administration that allowed him to go have the years he needed to go to recruit. The dividends are paying off greatly. They are one of the gold standards in college football right now. You’re recruiting a top 3 class every single year. That’s hard to compete with and they’re well-coached. You know, you have to give them credit. I know it’s a rivalry game but the truth is the turh. He’s built a dang good football program.”
But Freeze then began to note that Smart needed time to get Georgia to where it was. Freeze’s Ole Miss Rebels beat Georgia 45-14 when they met back in 2016. Georgia went 8-5 that season, with the loss to Ole Miss being the most lopsided.
“I don’t know how long it took him, three years or so to get there or four years. Some of y’all could do the research,” Freeze told reporters.
He was then informed that Georgia went to the national championship game in his second season. The Bulldogs won the SEC in 2017, beating Auburn in the SEC championship game. Georgia went on to beat Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl before losing to Alabama in the championship game.
While just about every Georgia fan seems to know that, Freeze himself did not.
“His second, phew. I don’t know that that is accurate,” Freeze said. “He did it pretty fast then. That’s pretty impressive.”
Auburn is coming off a 27-10 loss to Texas A&M, its first of the season. The Tigers did not score an offensive touchdown in the game. Auburn has also had a rough go of it against Georgia since Smart became the program’s head coach. The Bulldogs are 7-1 against Auburn under Smart, with the only victory coming during that 2017 season.
Still, Smart and Georgia know Saturday won’t be an easy game. Especially with the game being played in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
“Got a lot of respect for Hugh [Freeze] and the job he’s done everywhere he’s been,” Smart said. “He’s really been successful. Very bright. He does a great job with his team and they’re playing really really hard right now and got a lot of guys transfers in, that have added to their depth and they’re doing a really good job playing extremely hard and I know the environment we’ll be going into will be extremely tough.”
This will be Georgia’s first road game of the season, making Saturday’s contest all the more interesting. The game is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET start on CBS.
