When the Auburn football team traveled to Lexington on Friday for Saturday’s game, it found itself in a unique situation.
It was without its leader as head coach Hugh Freeze stayed in Auburn due to an illness.
The news of Freeze‘s absence was first reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel Saturday morning, detailing that Freeze was believed to be suffering from food poisoning and didn’t join the team until Saturday.
Freeze made it to Lexington and was able to coach, but needed an IV before the game due to what Freeze described as “weakness.”
Despite Freeze not joining the team until Saturday, he and Auburn players said the gameday routine didn‘t change much. Freeze wasn‘t present for Auburn’s Friday night team meeting, a routine that Freeze joked the team should maybe do more often.
“It would have been miserable for everybody if I had tried to travel yesterday with them,” Freeze said. “But nothing was really different other than I missed the Friday night meetings.”
Freeze said he did make it in time for all of Auburn’s meetings on Saturday, keeping the gameday operations the same.
Payton Thorne said Freeze wasn‘t present for Auburn’s Friday walkthroughs, but he was able to text back and forth with him Saturday morning.
“We’re happy to have him here with us and looked like he was feeling better,” Thorne said.
Defensive end Keldric Faulk said Freeze‘s early absence didn’t change his experience our routine, claiming he knew Freeze was coming.
“I knew he wasn‘t gonna miss this game for anything,” Faulk said. “He loves his players, he loves the game, he loves Auburn. I didn’t have a change in my routine because I knew he was coming. I knew he was gonna be behind us every step of the way.”
Thamel said on SEC Nation that Freeze had a “pretty tough 24-hour period,” leading up to Saturday. With an IV and some adrenaline, though, he found his way back on the sideline and helped lead Auburn to its first SEC win of the season.
“I feel good now that we won,” Freeze said after the game. “I’m sure I’ll get some rest tomorrow.”
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m
