Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze on Monday evening walked back comments from earlier in the day, when he said ”I’ll miss playing Georgia every year” during a speaking engagement in Birmingham.

Speaking to reporters some six hours later before an appearance at the C Spire 1st and 10 Club meeting in Mobile, Freeze said in fact he has “no clue” what the SEC’s future scheduling plans are beyond 2024. The league is still trying to work out whether or not it will go from eight conference games to nine beginning in 2025, which would allow the Tigers to play both Alabama and Georgia every season.

“Let’s really clarify that,” Freeze said. “I have no clue what’s going on, with future schedules and that hasn’t come to the coaches (for review) at all. What I totally meant by that was, there’s a lot of great rivalries in our conference and there’s new teams coming and I think it’s going to be exciting brand of football for people to see Texas (and Oklahoma).

“But should there be years where you’re not playing some that would be, I’m sure, disappointing to some people in certain years. But I have no clue what the future scheduling is, nor has it been discussed with us as coaches. I know what next year’s (schedule) is, and that’s as far as I know. So I was using a hypothetical and certainly hope everybody clears that up.”

Auburn (3-2, 0-2 SEC) has an open date this week before returning to action on Oct. 14 at LSU. In addition to speaking engagements in Birmingham and Mobile, Freeze was also on the recruiting trail Monday, visiting various high schools around the state.

Check back with AL.com later for more on Freeze’s Mobile appearance.