At a time when college football programs were surviving on adrenaline boosters to run the 2026 recruiting trail, Hugh Freeze marked himself safe from the rat race. It was quite evident from how the Auburn Tigers struggled with the 2026 recruiting class. They lost two back-to-back commits. 4-star linebacker Shadarius Toodle flipped to the Georgia Bulldogs. Then, more heartbreak came for Freeze. They lost 4-star wide receiver Devin Carter, who swapped wagons and hopped onto the Florida State Seminoles. 

During this time, they also lost four-star linebacker recruit JaMichael Garrett. With this, Freeze’s program fell 15 spots in the 2026 recruiting rankings. While the head coach was supposed to sit with his squad, sketching out the recruiting strategies, Freeze was spotted trying his hand at golf. And obviously, it invited some more trolls.   

With Auburn is sitting at No. 78 in the 247Sports team recruiting rankings for the 2026 class and dead last in the SEC, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin couldn’t stop himself from passing a jab. He took a not-so-subtle swing at Freeze and re-shared an X post by Freeze from May. In that picture, the Auburn head coach is spotted posing a bright smile with the Ryder Cup in his hands. Kiffin penned down his comment, “Great job Coach!! Game is on 🔥.” As the plot thickens for Freeze’s new love for golf, so much so, that his head coaching duties have gone for a toss. On the July 9 episode of the See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack podcast, David Pollack had the chance to interview him. The host attached the clip. “Hugh, how was the golf game By the way, we solved with golf?” asked Pollack.

Freeze kept it humble, claiming, “You know everybody seems to talk about my golf game. It’s not as good as it used to be.” Things started to get interesting as Pollack questioned, “I heard Jill’s given you all run for your money, you want?” And Freeze did not push the conversation under the table. He said, “Jill, is going to [work] with the GHIN system. She most days going to beat me right now. And if she is not beating me when it gets to the last few h—s she comes up with a new GHIN system that gives her a straight advantage to win.” That’s how Freeze’s best friend, his wife, Jill Freeze, is giving him some tough time. The couple has been married for more than three decades, and what better way to keep the chemistry alive? 

So, it’s obvious that Freeze is not pondering over Lane’s jab. This was then doubled down by the Auburn insider Justin Hokanson. But not everything is a path filled with roses for Freeze. “It didn’t really matter if they were winning, but they’re not. And perception does matter.” He then dropped some unfiltered take, “But I can tell you that there are people, there are boosters, there are people that are involved to give money, that don’t love it.” Boosters are not quite bothered about Freeze getting 18 h—-s. They want ROI. As Hokanson shared, “It’s not a huge deal… but the optics kind of matter too. If you’ve got people giving money that think you should be grinding harder? It’s going to bother them.” Now that Kiffin has fanned the heat under Freeze’s seat, it’s nothing new.

A sneak peek of the old Hugh Freeze-Lane Kiffin feud

Things took momentum last year in September. Freeze was touched by the Ole Miss NIL setup and especially The Grove Collective. So, the Auburn head coach only had good words to share about Kiffin’s program. “I think in the new world, that’s become harder and harder to do, and you’re constantly searching [for] ways with this new way of transferring and NIL to figure out exactly how to do it. I think there’s some who are doing it well, if you look at like Ole Miss and Missouri.”

The Rebels’ head coach was also present at the same conference. The host asked him about his thoughts on Freeze’s compliment. That’s when Kiffin came up with a sharp commentary. He started with a note of gratitude. “That is nice of Coach Freeze to complement our management of our collective.” However, he followed it up with a sarcastic jab, “I’m sure he’ll [Freeze] try to steal Walker Jones like he’s tried all of our coaches also.” Their old feud was reignited in February. 

After wrapping up the 2024 season with a 10-3 record, Lane Kiffin was in desperate need of a getaway. He took a trip to the Bahamas, that’s where he had a good time, fishing. Kiffin did not forget to flex about his big hunt, a giant Scamp Grouper fish. Till this, everything seemed fine with Freeze having no business with the Ole Miss head coach’s unique trophy. But in the caption, the Rebels’ head coach threw Freeze an open challenge. “What ya got @coachhughfreeze.” Their fishing tales go back to 2022, but with Freeze now going viral on the green, will Kiffin join the swing wars?