Heading into bowl season, Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze is dealing with something he’s never had to deal with in his coaching career up to this point: players opting out of bowl games. And he’s not a fan of it.
During a recent press conference, Hugh Freeze pointed out that up to this point, he has not had a single player opt out of a bowl game in his coaching career and admitted that it is “a difficult deal” for him because he thinks the players should be playing.
“That is a difficult deal for me. I’ve always believed you finish,” Freeze said according to On3. “You finish with your team. We signed up for this. However I will say I think every situation is a little different, and I’m going to have to really put a lot of thought and prayer and seek wisdom for if that becomes a case here.”
Still, Freeze understands the reality of the situation and knows that he and his coaching staff are going to have to prepare accordingly.
“There’s obviously some kids that will probably move on from here, so our people need to know that and that’s the new world we live in,” Freeze said. “Do you take to the bowl game those guys that are choosing to do that? Or do you not? You certainly need to have some numbers to have, you want to do well and you want to prepare well, so you’ve got to have some numbers to do that. So that’s a very, very… I think every coach probably would say I guess some are pretty cut and dry on it.”
It’s certainly a difficult situation and one that most coaches throughout the country are going through.
