In his welcome to the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze was asked about how much he knows of the history between Auburn and Georgia.

And Freeze didn’t quite see the same intensity for the rivalry that many fans have. Auburn plays No. 1 Georgia on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“I’m new here, but I don’t sense the hatred that is in some other rivalries that I’ve been a part of,” Freeze said.

A reporter then told Freeze he was about to find out, and Freeze continued on, saying he isn’t a fan of hating another team anyway.

“I’m not big on hate,” Freeze said. “I’m really not. I’m big on just, man, this means something to so many people. So we should compete in a way out of love for our people, not necessarily for hate for other people. That’s kind of the way I operate, but man, I hope we compete because we love Auburn and it means something to the Auburn people to compete against Georgia. So that’ll be my approach. But nonetheless, that love is a great motivator for me.”

A tweet of the quote gained a lot of traction on X, formerly known as Twitter, with Freeze’s comment becoming the butt of many jokes in the comments.

Freeze also seemed surprised when he was told by a reporter that Georiga head coach Kirby Smart made it to the national championship game in his second year.

“He did it pretty fast then,” Freeze said. “That’s pretty impressive.”

Auburn safety Zion Puckett, a Griffin, Georgia, native, said the Georiga game is especially meaningful to him against the power program in his home state. And he said Freeze will learn something on Saturday.

“I think he’ll find out,” Puckett said. “Just the intensity. We always have great intensity for each opponent, but I feel like every week it goes up.”

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