Things are not going well for Hugh Freeze at Auburn. The Tigers are at 2-2 on the season, but already have two home losses coming to California and Arkansas in their SEC opener. Freeze is playing musical chairs at quarterback and it seems like it’s going to be a long season on the plains.
But if there’s one person that still feels good about Hugh Freeze as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers, it’s Hugh Freeze.
On his coach’s show after the home defeat to Arkansas, Tiger Talk, Freeze tried to give one of the most preposterous arguments that you can in sports. He claimed that the “hard truth” about the defeat on Saturday was that were to Arkansas play Auburn nine more times, the Tigers would win every single one of those games.
“I mean no offense to Arkansas… I love Sam Pittman, I hope he wins the rest of his games but the hard truth is if we play them 9 more times, we beat them 9 times.”
Auburn Head Coach Hugh Freeze tonight on the Auburn Sports Network 😬. #WPS pic.twitter.com/klFinv78Eq
— Jacob Morris (@JacobMorrisTV) September 24, 2024
Is there any more laughable argument in sports than playing the “we lost, but we’d beat you 90% of the time” card? If it was so easy to beat Arkansas, then why would it only happen in hypotheticals and not in real life? It’s not like Arkansas is a glorified preseason game like Alabama A&M, who Auburn beat 73-3 to open the season. This is an SEC team! And one that’s clearly better than Auburn!
You can understand the point Freeze is trying to make in saying that mistakes cost his team the game, but he delivered it in the most sore loser way imaginable. Auburn outgained Arkansas 431-334 on Saturday, but largely lost the game because of five turnovers including four interceptions from Freeze’s maligned quarterbacks. It’s not like Arkansas won on a fluke play at the end of the game. They won the turnover battle, time of possession, and had more first downs than Auburn.
Given what we’ve seen from Auburn so far this season, most rational individuals would argue that would happen 90% of the time actually happened on Saturday. Looks like Charles Barkley’s prayers haven’t been answered yet.
And that’s the hard truth.
