How Auburn football's Hugh Freeze has done in building relationships with in-state coaches

AUBURN — Vestavia Hills coach Robert Evans' phone rang one morning.

On the other end was newly-hired Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze. The conversation wasn't extensive, but Freeze let Evans know the line of communication between the two of them was open.

"Hey, anything you need, we’re here for you," Evans recalled as Freeze's main point.

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The phone call was one piece of what was a welcome change for Evans, who has been coaching the Rebels since January 2022. Within the first couple months of Freeze arriving to the Plains and building his staff, three Auburn assistants − running backs coach Cadillac Williams, defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett and defensive coordinator Ron Roberts − had each stopped by Evans' office to interact and "talk a little ball."

Conversely, Evans said he didn't have a single conversation with anybody on former coach Bryan Harsin's staff during the 10 months their jobs overlapped: "Not one interaction is a bit strange to me, outside looking in," Evans added.

"I think that was a priority from Day 1," Freeze said April 27 when asked about building relationships within the state. "And I hope that the high school coaches and players have sensed our willingness to do whatever it takes to get back in the game. We've got to win some battles in this state. I think they've sensed that."

Freeze hasn't been at Auburn long enough to show too much proof of concept, but one of the biggest − if not the biggest − win he has had in terms of in-state recruiting was flipping Highland Home's Keldric Faulk away from Florida State and to the Plains in December.

Faulk, the top-rated recruit in Auburn's 2023 recruiting class who garnered praise throughout spring practice as an early enrollee, is primed to make an impact in Year 1.

Something that surely played a role in his recruitment was Freeze's involvement. The 53-year-old coach has said multiple times over the last six months that he hired assistants he's confident in to formulate schemes and game plans, which allows him to focus more on being a recruiter. That was evident during spring practice, when Freeze would often spend a chunk of the sessions off to the side speaking to a prospect and his family.

"I think the game of college football has changed so much over the past decade, as far as the head coach’s involvement in recruiting and social media," Pike Road coach Granger Shook said. "I think coach Freeze was really ahead of the game when he was at Ole Miss, really because he had to be. He had to find ways to find his niche, hang his hat on relationships and social media and rubbing elbows and being the head coach that is in the ballroom talking ball and at the clinics, being the face of the program. ...

"That’s something back in the day that head coaches didn’t really do, but now you see even coach (Nick) Saban at Alabama is doing that now. Even coach Kirby Smart (at Georgia) does that. But I think a lot of it started with coach Freeze and his success at recruiting at Ole Miss. ... I think that has kind of helped set a trend as far as other successful SEC coaches.”

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Enterprise coach Ben Blackmon, Opelika's Erik Speakman and Elmore Country's Kyle Caldwell all echoed similar sentiments: Freeze and his staff have been much more hands-on, making themselves easily accessible: "You’ve got some places in the state of Alabama that currently don’t have the caliber of kids to play at Auburn or Alabama," Blackmon said. "But when those coaches stop by anyway, what they’re telling you is they care about you as a coach."

And, as Evans put it, Auburn's staff isn't conceding any battles. He used his four-star edge Jordan Ross as an example. Evans isn't sure Ross will ultimately end up with the Tigers, "but it’s not because they haven’t tried."

"I think sometimes the previous staff almost conceded defeat on the front end of things with some of the top prospects," Evans said. "... I just don’t think that’ll be the case with coach Freeze. That doesn’t mean they’re going to win a ton of those battles, but they’re in the fight for them and they’re not giving in.

"That’s where you’ve got to start if you’re Auburn. You’ve got to go after the upper echelon kid across the country and try to win some of those battles that they haven’t even been willing to fight the last two years. That’s all you can ask, I think, from a fanbase (perspective)."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Hugh Freeze: What HS coaches think about new Auburn football staff