Hugh Freeze calling this week “a little different” was an understatement.

A road game that requires a team to travel just less than 2,500 miles is all but typical. Heck, since joining the college coaching ranks in 2006, Freeze has never had to travel that far for a single game.

In 2019, Freeze and the Liberty Flames took a trip to BYU. The journey from Lynchburg, Va. to Provo, Utah stretched a little less than 2,100 miles.

What did Freeze takeaway from the long trip? That he didn’t like it.

“I don’t like scheduling teams on the West Coast,” Freeze said. “I just assume play somebody over here on the East Coast, but it was done. Me complaining or not embracing it is not the proper response.”

Nonetheless, Freeze says Auburn’s matchup with Cal on Saturday might be more difficult than Liberty’s visit to BYU as he and the Tigers jump over another time zone for a game that won’t kick off until 9:30 p.m. CT — which ties for the latest kickoff in Auburn football history.

The Tigers traveled to Arizona in 1976 for a ball game that also kicked off at 9:30 p.m. CT, or 7:30 p.m. PT.

In an attempt to embrace the challenge, Freeze says he’s looking forward to seeing how the program responds to the adversities that come with a true road game like the one on the docket this weekend.

“I think it creates some challenges, but this will be a good test for all of us. Coaches, trainers, staff, nutritionists, drink staff, support staff, players. How do we handle it if things are a little uncomfortable?,” Freeze said. “You’ve gotta play a really good football team at their place when our body times are 9:30 or 10 at night and we’re kicking it off. All of that is going to be a challenge, but you know what, that’s what life is.”

And contrary to what many might assume, Monday’s Labor Day holiday might’ve helped the Tigers set the foundation for their abnormal week ahead.

Due to the holiday, there weren’t classes to get in the way of practice and film sessions. So instead, the Auburn football team had their “truth meeting” early Monday morning, which is what Freeze calls his debrief with the team from the game prior.

After Freeze’s press conference, which ended at about 11:30 a.m., he went straight out to the practice field.

“We’re trying to get through practice and meetings a bit earlier today to try to gain some extra rest and maybe some extra game planning today,” Freeze said. “This week’s a little different so we’re trying to get a jump-start.”

The Auburn football team will go wheels up on Thursday afternoon, landing in California late Thursday night.

“When they’re still college students, and most of ours are (taking) in-class stuff, so it’s really hard to tinker too much with our schedules here,” Freeze said. “The only thing we did, we’re going to practice a little earlier Thursday, and we don’t want to get to California until late Thursday night, so that you’re not sitting in a hotel at all hardly Thursday. It’s time to go to bed.”

Come Friday, however, it’ll be time for Auburn’s players to get their bodies adjusted.

The Tigers will head to San Mateo Community College on Friday to practice at their normal practice time in an attempt to stimulate as close to a normal schedule as possible.

“The hard day’s going to be, really, Saturday, sitting around,” Freeze said. “That’s a long time before kickoff.”

But once the Tigers and the Golden Bears do finally kick things off Saturday night, Freeze hopes that he and his team embrace the opportunity ahead of them.

It won’t be anything like Saturday’s season-opener against UMass — not from a talent standpoint, nor from an environment standpoint.

“How we approach it and the attitude we have for the opportunity to the opportunity we have, it ought to be one of gratitude and thankfulness,” Freeze said. “We gotta suck it up and fly a long flight. That’s what we gotta do. We got another opportunity to represent this school, this conference and each other. Let’s go make the most of it.”