It today’s world of college football, there might not be anything more tempting than the transfer portal.

Considering how common and easy transferring to another program has become, the second a player feels unhappy or that he might have better opportunities elsewhere, it’s easy to jump ship.

And Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze sees that as players giving up on the “process of becoming.”

“My preference would be to develop kids,” Freeze said when asked if he preferred recruiting high school recruits to dipping into the transfer portal. “But the process of becoming is kinda being lost.”

Freeze misses the days of recruiting a player out of high school and spending one or two years to develop him before having him ready to see quality snaps. Unfortunately for guys like Freeze and other “old school” coaches, that just can’t happen anymore as patience has become razor thin.

“There’s too many voices in the heads of these young men,” Freeze said during the SEC Teleconference Wednesday afternoon. “And I think they get bad advice and we’ve made it really, really easy to quit something because it’s hard. And I think that’s a bad lesson for now and a bad lesson for life.”

Now, obviously Freeze didn’t seem to mind the transfer portal when he first accepted the job at Auburn and brought in more than 20 transfer players. But given the situation he inherited after the Tigers’ program was left bare by the previous coaching staff, Freeze was left no choice but to try and plug and play transfers.

Moving forward, one can expect Freeze to focus on high school and junior college prospects. That’s already become evident as Freeze and the rest of Auburn’s coaching staff continue to reap success on the recruiting trail.

Last week was a big week as the Tigers earned the commitments of the No. 1 JUCO safety Laquan Robinson, flipped 4-star edge rusher Jamonta Waller away from Florida and reeled in 2025 4-star tight end Ryan Ghea.

But often times, bringing in young, raw talent from the high school ranks means some guys might be sitting in their first season or two. And given what we know about the appeal of the transfer portal, the question of how Freeze intends to keep underutilized players from flirting with the transfer portal is a big one.

“I have a plan for that,” Freeze said Wednesday when asked how he tries to players from jumping ship.

Because Freeze feels it’s working, he didn’t want to offer too many specifics as to what exactly that plan looks like.

In short, he calls it the “SOAR Program.”

“We’ve got a group of men in this building, that’s one of their sole charges is developing the relationships with these young kids to try to convince them of truth and not believing some lies or hopes,” Freeze explained.

Freeze didn’t offer insight into who makes up the group of men.

And while Freeze feels confident in his approach to this point, he realizes it won’t work every time.

“I don’t know that any of us are ever going to be 100% in it and it certainly makes it very difficult to manage your recruiting and roster management,” Freeze said. “But it’s part of the game now and it’s not a part that many of us like, but you better pay attention to it for sure, because it’s here.”