John Wooden and a Garmin GPS: Why Hugh Freeze wants Auburn football to 'work backwards'

AUBURN — Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze said the players didn't know what he was talking about.

So, he began with the basics.

"When I started recruiting, I used to have the old map, a real map," Freeze said at a news conference Tuesday, recalling what he had told his roster. "... And then when you get to the town, guess what you did? You stopped at the convenience store and you said, 'Hey, where is the high school?' ... And then you got to the high school and then you've got to get somebody to direct you to the players' house for the home visit. That's how it started."

Freeze then spoke about the advent of printable directions and later the Garmin GPS.

"That's really when I lost them," Freeze said.

The discussion of old-school navigational devices was spurred by Freeze's word of the week: Vision.

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"Last week's word was decisions," Freeze said. "Ultimately, the quality of our decisions will determine the quality of our life. We can say it however you want, but that's just the facts. ... I'm following that up now with vision."

Freeze asked his players what they want their lives to look like in 10 years, football removed. What kind of home does it involve? Are a wife and children included? What about the rest of their families?

"That should be the GPS," Freeze said. "... When you had (the Garmin), you put in the destination first and then it gave you the directions to get there. That's what I'm trying to get to now. We've talked about decisions. Now, all right, what is the vision? That should be your GPS for the decisions as you think backwards."

Freeze, though he mentioned the non-football related parts of life, eventually shifted the conversation back to on-field results. What's the vision for the team? How do the Tigers get there?

He brought up former UCLA basketball John Wooden, who led the Bruins to 10 national champions over a 12-year stretch from 1963-1975, and NBA hall of famer Bill Walton, who played collegiately under Wooden for three seasons and won two titles.

"You ask Bill Walton what the most important thing was and he says, Day 1, (Wooden) told him how to put socks on," Freeze said. "He told him how to lace his shoes. And if you asked him after he got through what he missed the most, he said, 'I miss practice.' ...

"If you really want the vision to be something, then we better work backwards and those decisions have to match it."

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

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: How Hugh Freeze is using a GPS to tell Auburn to 'work backwards'