Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze isn’t taking any sort of victory lap just because his team played Georgia closer than many believed was possible this past Saturday.

The Tigers led the two-time defending national champions for much of the game at Jordan-Hare Stadium, before losing 27-20 to the top-ranked Bulldogs. A loss is still a loss no matter the circumstances, Freeze told reporters prior to a speech at the C Spire 1st & 10 Club in Mobile on Monday.

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“There’s no moral victories in the SEC,” Freeze said. “Does it mean we’re that we’re a little closer to closing the gap? Maybe, but that’s one Saturday and you’ve got to do it for a long stretch in this league and we’re not very deep. I think that showed in the fourth quarter and it’s concerning when you start talking about stacking the whole schedule together in the 12 games.

“I look forward to the day where we have a full recruiting class … to join our team to give us some depth. We played a very good quality football team really, really close and there’s a lot of positives you can take from that, but that one Saturday in and of itself probably doesn’t qualify for us to say we’ve arrived at some benchmark yet.”

Auburn is 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the SEC heading into its open date, a break that allowed Freeze to get out among the public on Monday. He also spoke in Birmingham earlier in the day and made a number of recruiting visits at high schools around the state.

Speaking of recruiting, Auburn has made plenty of headway in that department in Freeze’s short time on the job. The Tigers currently have the 14th ranked class in the country for 2024 according to 247 Sports, something Freeze said the entire Auburn fan base can take pride in.

“The way that they have embraced our new staff and our players and my family … it’s just been overwhelming and humbling, truthfully,” Freeze said. “We sold more season tickets than ever before in the history of the program, which is amazing to me. It just tells me of their passion for Auburn football and I haven’t experienced a greater fan base than what I’ve experienced here. I think they’re just the best.

“Jordan-Hare is an incredible place to play and our people are super supportive and I think it helps in recruiting. We had a great recruiting weekend even though we lost the game, and a lot of that goes to the energy that is being felt from our people.”

Freeze addressed a number of other topics in speaking with reporters. Among those were:

• The shared play-calling arrangement between himself and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery

“It’s a constant evolving thing. Obviously, there’s strengths to Monty’s play-calling and I’ve done it for a long time. So we collaborate really well together and we’re still kind of searching for what is best for our football team to win games.

“This week, a lot of discussions will take place. But every game plan, I know what’s on the call sheet and certainly have the freedom to step in and make a call if I want. I approve that. He’s made some good calls. We haven’t executed a lot of calls that were really good. … He’s awesome to work with. I think it will be a good collaboration moving forward.”

• Auburn’s quarterback play through five games

“Inconsistent. We’re still searching a bit, not so much in the running game, but in the pass game as to what we really look like and who we’re really going to be. … When I say that, I do not say that that’s all on the quarterback. A lot of it is on receiver play, coaches. Is it a combination of protections and the quarterback?

“I thought Payton (Thorne), of his nine incompletions Saturday, I really felt like five of those should have been caught, and that makes a difference in those games and it makes a difference in how you perceive the play of a quarterback. And so it’s a combination and we’re still searching some. I’ve been honest about that, and we’ve got to improve.”

• Auburn rushing for 200-plus yards vs. Georgia, something no opponent had done in nearly 5 years

“That means we had a good plan and our kids executed it somewhat, in a good way. So we can build upon it. It means you rushed (for 219 yards) against one of the best defenses in the country and (so) we should be able to do that week-in, week-out, if we can clean up, the third-and-threes and -fours that really cost us in the fourth quarter.

“Those third downs on both sides, I think that was the difference in the game. Our defense couldn’t get off the field on third-and-longs and we couldn’t convert the third-and-mediums-to-shorts. And I think that was the difference in the game. But you take, again, the fact that we did rush the ball on a good defense and let’s build upon it.”

• Auburn’s overall defensive performance this season

“I’m very pleased other than the few breakdowns we tend to have that cost us. If we could play a complete game like we played the first and second quarter against (Texas) A&M and against Georgia, that would be nice.

“I do think part of that is depth. We get gassed because we’re not playing many people on that side of the football, but boy, they played extremely well for two quarters. I think we’re the first team to hold Georgia under 100 yards rushing — you guys can figure out how long — but it’s been a while. So they’re playing really well.”

Auburn will practice Tuesday and Wednesday, Freeze said, with a lighter workout Thursday before coaches hit the road recruiting that afternoon and Friday. The Tigers travel to LSU on Oct. 14 in a game that will kick off at either 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. on ESPN or the SEC Network.