Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze isn’t just coaching a football team — he’s navigating a psychological maze. Trying to understand what truly drives each individual in his locker room. At SEC Media Days, Freeze peeled back the curtain on a tool he believes is changing how he connects with his players: personality testing. The idea, he said, helped him—and his players—understand how they each tick. But while the psychological shift is drawing praise, Freeze made it clear: AU’s recruiting situation remains anything but straightforward.
When asked about how he’s managing a crowded WR room, Hugh Freeze was pressed with a sharp NFL comparison from The Next Round. The analyst framed it like building a roster around Justin Jefferson—you don’t chase another WR1 when you’ve already got elite talent. Freeze didn’t dodge. “It is… you just described it like the NFL. And no one really talks about that. I know we’re not where we want to be in the quote recruiting rankings, but I don’t know how much the rankings are going to matter a whole lot.” His point: chemistry and culture—not just stars—are what he’s banking on.
Then Freeze peeled back another layer. “There’s four buckets to me,” he explained. “And the number one bucket is retain that locker room that you want.” Transparency, even when uncomfortable, is the program’s current philosophy. “We’re very transparent to a fault probably in recruiting right now… but we think that’s the way that’s going to win out in the end if we understand the accurate settlement and exactly how it’s supposed to operate.” He pushed back on the outside noise about roster turnover.
“On paper, I don’t have no receivers leaving, right? And so what do you do in January?” he asked. “By the way, you’re trying to sign a class in December, and you don’t know what will happen in January. Which is really, really difficult.” In Freeze’s world, the old logic of filling spots in advance doesn’t work anymore. “We’re going to try to sign one receiver, but I kind of like to hold on to that room I have. That’s where you can’t offer deals to kids, and then they sign with you in December. Now, what are you going to do?”
That delicate balancing act makes Auburn’s locker room culture all the more critical. Freeze said understanding how different personalities respond to pressure has helped him shift his coaching approach. “It helped me a lot understand how Jackson [Arnold] and Deuce [Knight] and Ashton [Daniels], how do they need to be coached by me,” Freeze said at the Media Day. “I can be that Michael Jordan side of, ‘you gotta get this right. Why didn’t you get it right?’ Instead, I probably need to be more of the Scottie Pippen sometimes.” He described how it’s no longer a one-size-fits-all model. Some players need intensity, others need reassurance.
The data from personality tests has shaped not only team dynamics but also his individual interactions. “The results allowed him to group the players into different categories that would influence how Freeze coaches and communicates with them,” he said. It’s an evolution from old-school toughness to something more customized—and perhaps more sustainable. Jackson Arnold’s case illustrates the method. After a turbulent 2024 season at Oklahoma, Hugh Freeze zeroed in on Arnold’s mental game.
“I feel really good about that right now,” Freeze said. “Ultimately, I don’t think there’s any way you’re going to really judge it until we hit the field, but he’s got the swagger right now and the respect of this football team and a great understanding of our offense.” Freeze’s goal wasn’t just to give Arnold the playbook—it was to restore belief. And in that process, the test served as both a mirror and a map.
The tests have become even more essential in the portal era, where relationships are forged and finalized in less than 24 hours. Freeze compared it to “speed dating,” explaining how decisions are made at a frantic pace. Arnold said he took a personality test during his Auburn visit and appreciated its value. It’s optional for high school recruits, but Freeze still recommends it. Auburn brought in 19 transfers this offseason and 42 commits in the 2025 class, including 15 ESPN 300 players. They should all sync in for AU to carry them forward.
QB1 Arnold finds his groove as Hugh Freeze shifts gears
There’s still some mystery wrapped around Jackson Arnold — how much of last year’s struggle was on him, and how much was the chaos around him? After all, as a true freshman at Oklahoma, Arnold got clobbered behind a collapsing offensive line and threw to a patchwork wideout crew. So when a podcast host asked Hugh Freeze if Arnold reminded him of Bo Wallace, Freeze smiled and leaned in: “He’s a competitive dude like Bo. Bo was more outspoken than Jackson is. Jackson’s more reserved.”
Freeze didn’t just guess how to coach Arnold. He doubled down on the personality tests on his entire staff and roster, including himself. And what did he learn? That not everyone responds to coaching like Jordan would dish it out. “You got to quit being Michael Jordan to these quarterbacks at times,” Freeze admitted. “Michael just… right, you know? And I can find myself doing that, and I don’t think that’s what Jackson needs right now.”
So, the coach made a shift. “I’ve made a real effort, and I think his confidence just grew and grew and grew and grew throughout spring… obviously, hopefully, getting him protected.” Sure, those personality tests won’t be truly validated until the bullets fly this fall, but Freeze is betting big on them.
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