Auburn football had a rough month of June on the recruiting trail.

The Tigers lost multiple commitments from their 2026 class and found themselves ranked in the 80s in 247Sports team recruiting rankings. As that was happening, head coach Hugh Freeze caught plenty of criticism for the time he spent on the golf course.

From June 1 to June 24, Freeze posted 10 rounds to the USGA’s GHIN database, more than any other coach who made their scores public. Those numbers led to Freeze catching plenty of heat from fans, media members and others invested in college football.

Freeze addressed that criticism in an episode of David Pollack’s See Ball Get Ball podcast on Thursday.

“I do love golf, I enjoy playing it to get away, but what people don’t realize is probably, you know, I assure you I never missed a camp day or a recruiting day,” Freeze said. “But, if camp got over at three o’clock one day and Jill and I go out at 4:30, we absolutely might do that and I’m not apologizing for that part of it.

“My focus is 100% on getting Auburn in that win column this fall. I think the biggest thing that’s causing most of it is the recruiting rankings right now,” Freeze continued. “We’ve been top 10 my two years here in recruiting and currently we’re not.”

Auburn’s 2026 recruiting class currently ranks 78th in 247Sports’ team recruiting rankings but has been as low as 89th this summer. The Tigers have had four players decommit from the class since June.

Freeze spoke briefly on why Auburn has had issues in recruiting, referencing the changes brought on by the House Settlement, allowing revenue sharing with athletes.

“Good lord, we could spend 30 minutes on why I think that is,” Freeze said of Auburn’s low recruiting ranking. “There’s a lot of people right now that are operating under a different set of rules on what their interpretation is of this settlement and how you should operate. I’m gonna operate in the manner that our administration has interpreted it.

“I think it’s a long game play for us that I think is gonna work out in our favor because we’re doing it very transparent and the way we believe the settlement is written and to operate, if that makes any sense.”

Another point Freeze made when talking about the recruiting issues is Auburn prioritizing retaining the current roster, using the example of the wide receiver room.

“Do y’all realize on paper that I’m not losing a single receiver? This is not like, David, in the old days where you just sign 25 guys and figure out who the 85 are,” Freeze said. “This is actually a salary cap world, and I like our receiver room. How do I go and make offers to other receivers at numbers that these other schools are when I’m like, come January I wanna keep the ones I have?

“I don’t think the Finebaums of the world or any of them think about all that, they just say, ‘he’s playing golf and not recruiting.’”

Freeze added that the staff “has not changed a single approach to our recruiting,” saying people love when they come to Auburn. He also pointed to Aug. 1 as a potential turning point, the day the often-lucrative offers from schools start going into writing.

“We’ll see where everything shakes out after that,” Freeze said.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkusor email him at [email protected]m