Hugh Freeze managed to piss off three-straight opponents with one single comment three weeks ago. Vanderbilt players can’t wait to prove him wrong during Saturday’s college football game at Auburn.
The matchup will serve as the rubber match for his polarizing remarks about “lesser rosters” in the SEC.
Freeze held a press conference on Oct. 14, the Monday coming out of a bye week ahead of a road game at Missouri. He offered an opening statement that served as a dig at his own team and three other teams in the same conference— even though it was supposed to be a compliment.
The 55-year-old head coach essentially praised Eli Drinkwitz, Mark Stoops and Clark Lea for winning games with bad players. Freeze implied that he needs to do a better job of coaching his bad players to that same level. He put his foot right in his mouth.
Hugh Freeze comments on the good coaching jobs done with “those lesser rosters.” He includes coaches at Missouri, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. pic.twitter.com/Dw8ftv6QSQ
— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) October 14, 2024
To make it even worse, Freeze made those comments about his next three opponents. It was prime bulletin board material and it immediately backfired when Mizzou beat Auburn just five days later.
Unfortunately, Kentucky could not make Freeze eat his words and lost to Auburn last weekend.
Vanderbilt will have the final opportunity to do so on Saturday. The Commodores are aware of what their opponent’s head coach said about them. They do not appreciate the “lesser roster” label.
Senior safety C.J. Taylor spoke about the two-week-old comments on Tuesday. He said “we’ll see at the end of the week” and left it at that.
Meanwhile, Hugh Freeze joked about Vandy quarterback Deigo Pavia on Monday. Pavia is 2-0 against Freeze with 575 total yards and nine touchdowns in the last two seasons while at New Mexico State.
The former is “tired of seeing” the latter.
For him to say that, after diminishing the Commodores roster as “lesser” is rather ironic. It would be a real treat for the vast majority of college football fans if they can make Freeze eat his words yet again.