This is an opinion column.

Hugh Freeze is not Pat Dye. It seems important to make that point right at the top, no matter how obvious it may be. After what happened Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium, another comparison between them is in order, but no one should misunderstand.

This is about their first big games at Auburn, not about them as coaches or men. This is about what Dye made happen from there and what Freeze made the fan base think may be possible from here.

Sometimes a game is just a game, and its impact ends when the wounds heal. Dye’s first big game at Auburn was not one of those games. Even 42 years later, it still stands as a pillar of the program he built. Even for a man whose postgame talks are the stuff of legend, his words that day haven’t lost their power to give you chills.

Only time can tell whether Freeze’s first big game on the Plains will have legs, but there’s no denying that for 60 minutes on the last Saturday in September, his first team had everyone on their feet.

First, if you didn’t live through it, or relive it through the “Mighty” life story produced by his trusty friend and Auburn trustee Jimmy Rane, a few words on the coach who looked Bear Bryant and Alabama in the eye and made them blink. Dye’s name is on the field. His aura’s in the air, his spirit in the soil, his presence all about the place. His legacy didn’t need that statue outside the stadium. It has roots too deep to die.