Look, defending Auburn coach Hugh Freeze for much of anything when it comes to football or life is usually not in anyone’s best interest. However, he recently made a good point about his work-life balance.
After Freeze came under criticism from fans for the amount of golf he plays among SEC coaches, he went on David Pollack’s See Ball Get Ball podcast and offered a pretty solid defense of his time on the links.
“This is that time where people are looking for things to write about,” Freeze said. “And I do love golf. I enjoy playing… but what people don’t realize is probably, you know, I assure you that I never missed a camp day or a recruiting day… but if camp got over at three o’clock one day, and Jill [Freeze] and I go out at 4:30, we absolutely might do that, and I’m not apologizing for that part of it. But my focus is 100-percent on getting Auburn in that win column this fall.”
Freeze added that he thinks the team’s lack of very recent recruiting success might be causing fans to blame his time spent golfing as a reason as to why that’s the case.
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Freeze’s lack of success since arriving at Auburn (11-14, 5-11 SEC) probably has Tiger fans antsy about where the program is going, and any recruiting stalls can exacerbate that worry. However, Freeze going golfing more than other coaches does not have anything to do with how successful Auburn will be in the fall.
Having a work-life balance is pretty important to anybody’s success in any field, so Freeze is well within his right to spend time on the green if he wants in his free time. It’s the “watch more film” fallacy in criticizing what athletes do in their spare time; watching even more film doesn’t make that athlete play better, and any coach or athlete solely devoting themselves to their craft and not having a life outside of work doesn’t automatically bring you wins. It’s an easy target for fans to blame, but it rarely reflects on the real life dynamics at play.
Auburn fans, look at what Freeze is doing on game days and not what he’s doing before he goes to eat dinner. How much Freeze golfs in the summer is not going to matter much to your team’s success or failure. How well he’s built the roster and how well he coaches will determine that for the Tigers.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Heartbreaking: Auburn’s Hugh Freeze made a good point about his golf critics
