Baumhower’s Victory Grille was overtaken with orange and blue Thursday evening, just as it is anytime the restaurant hosts Auburn’s Tiger Talk radio show with head football coach Hugh Freeze in attendance as it’s an opportunity for Auburn fans engage with Freeze and ask him questions.

And boy, does Freeze get questions from out of left field from time to time.

On Thursday, Freeze was asked what other sport he’d coach if he weren’t coaching football. His answer was girls’ basketball – a sport he was asked to coach when he was still in the high school ranks. He added that he wouldn’t mind coaching golf, either – but for selfish reasons as he’d just want to practice more himself.

Freeze was also asked if he thought he’d be more nervous playing Ole Miss – a team he coached from 2012-16 – at home in Jordan-Hare Stadium or in Oxford, Miss.

Auburn’s first-year head coach started to answer the question, but quickly shifted gears and changed the subject, showing exactly where his mind is at: recruiting.

Freeze’s segway in the exchange was the fact that he doesn’t have much time to let himself get nervous on Saturdays.

“I don’t even get to think about the game until literally… I’ll probably get out there with about 30 minutes left in warmups and you know it’s go time then,” Freeze said.

But rest assured Auburn fans, Freeze isn’t lollygagging around on Saturdays.

Instead, he’s investing in the future of the football program.

“I just think I have to recruit so hard right now and there’s so many good players coming to our games and I feel like I have to meet with them,” Freeze said. “And it’s working. You know, we got another big commitment today from one of the top players in the nation and that make us two this week.”

The NCAA prohibits Freeze from talking about specific recruits until they arrive to campus. But anyone who pays attention to Auburn’s recruiting efforts knows who Freeze was referring to.

Mere hours before Freeze rushed to Baumhower’s straight from practice, as he does every Thursday, Auburn picked up a big-time commitment in Kendarius Reddick – a 4-star athlete in the 2025 recruiting class.

On Monday, Freeze and the Tigers earned the commitment of Jourdin Crawford – a 4-star defensive lineman in the 2025 class.

The 2025 class?

Yes, the 2025 class.

Freeze said the day he was introduced as Auburn’s 31st head coach that he’d have to hit the ground hard and, in a hurry, to restock the same cupboards that were left bare by Bryan Harsin and his staff.

Freeze echoed that again Thursday night.

“I’ve said since I got here — and I hope everybody keeps hearing me — but you know, the ‘24 and ‘25 class will really tell the story of how fast we can close the gap on the upper echelon in this conference,” Freeze said.

When Harsin was fired midway through the 2022 season, Auburn had the 55th-ranked recruiting class, according to 247Sports. And it’s for that reason Freeze was left scrambling to piece together a team via the transfer portal throughout the offseason.

But under Freeze, Auburn’s 2024 recruiting class currently ranks 17th in the country and is bolstered by a pair of 5-star recruits in wide receiver Perry Thompson and linebacker Demarcus Riddick.

Meanwhile, Freeze’s commitment to establishing the foundation of his 2025 class has gone on to prove that the early bird gets the worm.

With the additions of Reddick and Crawford, the Tigers now boast the fourth-ranked recruiting class in the nation, coming behind Georgia, Alabama and Notre Dame.

However, none of that leaves Freeze and Auburn’s staff feeling complacent.

“We’ve got another big group coming this weekend,” Freeze said Thursday. “We got two official visits — two guys we really want and plus a bunch of five- and four-star kids that there will be at the game.”

Earlier this week, a pair of 5-star wide receivers in Ryan Williams and Caleb Cunningham announced their intentions of being at Jordan-Hare Stadium for Saturday’s game against Ole Miss.

So, if you think Freeze is overthinking coaching against his former program, think again.

“I don’t have a lot of time,” Freeze said, revisiting the question that sparked the recruiting rant in the first place.

“I leave the hotel as soon as we get through with our last meeting, I get to the stadium and I’m locked in a room meeting with families until they take me to Tiger Walk. And then I come back and I meet again until I just can’t because I want to see them all.”

Freeze’s recruiting efforts during game days are unlike anything he’s had to do in his career, he admitted Thursday night.

Even when he was at Ole Miss a decade ago, he wasn’t having to do this much legwork. But the reason he didn’t might shock some.

“For whatever reason — even though we were winning and doing well — you didn’t have the number of top guys showing up,” Freeze said.

When Auburn hosted No. 1 Georgia on Sept. 30, Jordan-Hare Stadium hosted upwards of 70 recruits.

“And of course, Liberty was nothing,” Freeze said, insinuating that playing for the Flames was the fallback plan for many recruits whose aspirations of playing Power 5 football fell through.

“But this is quite different.”