When Hugh Freeze woke up Sunday morning, he said he didn’t feel like following his routine of going to church. The Auburn head coach was still in a daze from the shocking loss his team had taken the day prior to New Mexico State. After the game, he said it was like a bad dream. Yet when he woke up Sunday morning, the reality hits that he wasn’t dreaming.

On Auburn’s Tiger Talk radio show Monday night, Freeze said his wife Jill made him get up and go. After the loss, she said he needed to go the church. It didn’t matter the time they went, they just had to go at some point.

Throughout the day, Freeze said he received texts from friends, family and Auburn fans. They were meant to cheer him up. They reminded him that Alabama head coach Nick Saban lost to Louisiana-Monroe his first year — and Saban turned out okay.

For Freeze, it was a day of reflection. It was a day of trying to find an understanding of how such a loss could even happen. Throughout Tiger Talk and his press conference Monday, Freeze has expressed disappointment and embarrassment.

“It makes you question why in the world did I choose this as a profession,” Freeze said.

His focus on Sunday was almost exclusively on football, as much as others may have tried to distract him. He was just looking ahead to when he’d get to see his team for the first time Monday afternoon.

There were a few phone calls fit in that meantime — former Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn and Freeze chatted about preparing for the Iron Bowl before Freeze’s first appearance.

During his Monday press conference, Freeze said he sensed his team was in a “fog” after the loss and had to break out of it in order to turn the page to the Iron Bowl this week. Auburn’s players felt that fog, too.

“Nobody in that building is happy and it’s embarrassing what we made out fans watch,” Freeze said during Tiger Talk. “It baffles me that we played as poorly as we did.”

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]