Hugh Freeze isn’t quite ready to talk about a certain seven-letter word.

It’s waiting for him in a week’s time. It’s one that will serve as the culmination at the end of the new Auburn head coach’s first season which now rides a sudden burst of momentum on the field and on the recruiting trail. It’s the one he isn’t quite ready to compete with now, but he is hopeful the groundwork he’s laying now will prepare him for later.

A-l-a-b-a-m-a

Asked about maintaining the goodwill Auburn’s had over its three-game winning streak with A-l-a-b-a-m-a looming just after Thanksgiving, Freeze described them as “the other team that you mentioned.”

All that positive vibe could swing away in an instant if, as Freeze described, Auburn “stumps (its) toe this week.” Auburn hosts New Mexico State on Saturday. The Aggies are 8-3 in the second year of a major turnaround under head coach Jerry Kill. But Auburn is favored by more than 20 points. If Auburn wins, it will be the fourth win in a row for Freeze’s team and carry even more energy into that game against, well, A-l-a-b-a-m-a.

Auburn’s winning streak comes on the heels of the season’s low point. It’s been a year of streaks for Auburn, winning the first three games of the year before dropping four in a row to begin conference play. Then, and especially following losses to LSU and Ole Miss coming out of the bye week where Auburn was hardly competitive,

“When we’re in a four-game losing streak, you’re obviously not winning, so it should be the learning time,” Freeze said Monday. “But I don’t like to wallow in that very long. I want to get out and luckily our kids did too.”

Since then, Auburn’s offense has looked significantly better. It can be correlated with Freeze taking on a larger role within the game planning and play calling.

Auburn has seen quarterback Payton Thorne play his best football of the season as Auburn incorporates the higher-tempo offense Freeze has built his career on as well as eliminated the rotation of Thorne and backup Robby Ashford.

Auburn’s passing offense started so poorly that it has only climbed up around 10 spots nationally, but the total offense has risen from outside the top 100 and into the top 75 in th country.

The winning has turned into a string of significant recruiting wins, all within three days. Auburn landed Laquan Robinson, the top-ranked junior college safety on Nov. 10. Next, four-star edge rusher and the top-ranked player in Mississippi Jamonta Waller flipped his commitment from Florida to Auburn.

Minutes before news of Waller’s flip broke, Freeze was finishing up his press conference after beating Arkansas.

“Hopefully in recruiting we can go get us another pass rusher or two, hopefully, soon,” Freeze said as the final words of his press conference before getting up from the table with a grin.

Then, not even 24 hours after Waller’s commitment, class of 2025 tight end Ryan Ghea announced his pledge to Auburn, too.

Three commitments in 72 hours brought Auburn’s 2024 class up to 18 players and ranked 16th nationally per 247Sports. Auburn’s class is in the top 10 nationally for 2024 based on the player’s average rating.

Waller is the second-highest-rated player in the class behind wide receiver Perry Thompson and just ahead of linebacker Demarcus Riddick.

Albeit still very early, Auburn’s 2025 class is ranked in the top five nationally.

The momentum could be maintained as Auburn pursues highly ranked Texas A&M commitments after Jimbo Fisher’s firing — highlighted by Phenix City native and 5-star rated wide receiver Cam Coleman.

Certainly, Freeze understands not pushing over New Mexico State. Kill’s team annihilated Freeze’s bunch at Liberty last year while Freeze was actively being pursued for the then-vacant Auburn head coaching job.

Yet for a coach so self-aware of the bigger picture, he hasn’t forgotten Alabama is there.

“It’s going to test our maturity” Freeze said. “We’ll talk about it today in our team meeting, and that’ll be my message: We won’t talk about the other team that you mentioned, we’ll talk about the one we have right in front of us that could sting us. And I’ve experienced that before.”

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