In his first year at Auburn, head coach Hugh Freeze’s tasks extend beyond that of getting the program to its first winning season for the first time since 2020. There’s a fanbase that Freeze has to attend to, a culture he said he wants to change.

In his SEC Media Days press conference, Freeze said he believes the Auburn football family to be “fractured.”

“I did sense coming in that the faith in the whole family of Auburn football was fractured somewhat, and I think that is where I had to start in trying to repair that,” Freeze said.

Fixing that fracture isn’t going to happen before the season begins. And at least partly, that starts with Freeze himself. Freeze’s arrival at Auburn has its share of controversy. He left Ole Miss in the wake of a scandal. And his hire was thus met with mixed reviews.

Freeze was not directly asked about being back in the SEC after an internal investigation at Ole Miss found a “pattern of misconduct” but he did make multiple references to the “way it ended” at his alma mater.

That fracture, too, extends locally at Auburn before Freeze was hired. Bryan Harsin’s two losing seasons at Auburn left fans frustrated. It left high school coaches needing to regain trust in Auburn’s staff.

Tying the fans, and the program back together takes a culture change, Freeze said.

“Our culture is based on faith, attitude, and mental toughness, integrity and love and what do those things mean to us,” Freeze said.

Faith, Freeze described, could mean both religion but also belief in the new administration. There are many new faces within the athletic department. There’s Freeze, there’s athletic director John Cohen and Auburn president Christopher Roberts.

There are dozens of new players on the team too. So many that Freeze still needs to put tape on their helmets just so he can learn everyone’s names.

Freeze said Auburn is easy to recruit to, but with so many new faces, the job of turning around Auburn — on the field at least — can be challenging. That team chemistry will take time to mesh. Players who came with Auburn to media days like offensive lineman Kam Stutts were confident in the job Freeze has done with the group so far in terms of creating a new culture.

And though Stutts isn’t a new face, the one’s he is surrounded by represent a reset, of sorts, within Auburn’s football program. A reset that could mend a fracture.

It may be early on — before a single game has been played — but fans do appear beginning to believe in Freeze’s new-look Auburn program as shown by record ticket sales.

To Freeze, it was validation.

“Humbling, gratifying, thankful,” Freeze said of Auburn’s season ticket sell out. “You know, everybody can choose to react a lot of different ways to what you read, see, hear, but I think it just speaks to, really, what the Auburn Family is all about, and that is family. Families aren’t perfect all the time, but you’re still family, and I think they’ve just welcomed our staff, my family, our new players, and are excited about the effort that we’re putting in to try to put a product on the field that brings them joy. We’re very thankful.”