With Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers set to host the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs later that afternoon, one might think Freeze spent Saturday morning crossing his T’s and dotting his I’s in Auburn’s gameplan against Georgia.

Instead, in an effort that started at 8 a.m., Freeze spent the morning welcoming countless recruits to The Plains.

“I started at 8 o’clock at the hotel, for those on officials,” Freeze said following the game. “For those on unofficials, I came straight over and started meeting with them here. So I’ve seen most all of them.”

Freeze said that less than 20 minutes after Auburn’s narrow loss to the top-ranked Bulldogs.

And he wasn’t done.

Coaching well enough to keep Kirby Smart and No. 1 Georgia on the ropes for four quarters is surely exhausting, much less the emotional toll that comes with a loss like Saturday’s.

But if anyone thought Freeze was calling it a day and heading home with so many recruits on his doorstep, they must not know Auburn’s coach very well.

“I’m not saying I’m better than others, I’m just saying I find it hard to believe that there are some that are putting more effort into it,” Freeze said following a speaking engagement in Mobile, Ala. on Monday.

Freeze spent the hours following Auburn’s 27-20 loss to Georgia with the nearly 70 recruits that had made their way to The Plains that weekend.

And it’s that kind of effort Auburn fans wanted out of their head football coach – especially after the failed Bryan Harsin experiment, which saw recruiting be pushed to the back burner.

CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee said in a July interview with AL.com that he thought the neglect Harsin gave to the Auburn program was “monstrous.”

“The inability to recruit, the lack of effort to recruit, the lack of effort to truly hit the transfer portal, the lack of understanding of what it takes to be an SEC football coach set the program back several years in an era where it’s two chief rivals, specifically Georgia, became a monster,” Sallee said.

Harsin’s ineptitudes on the recruiting trail left the cupboards dry for whoever Auburn hired next.

And that left Freeze scrambling to do whatever he could to improve the Tigers’ roster in the shortest amount of time. So he went to the transfer portal and plucked more than 20 players from it – even though that’s not how he prefers to do it.

“I don’t know that it matters what my philosophy is anymore, but if I had my choice, I would like to sign high school kids and develop them. That’s how you build a program,” Freeze said. “But that’s the old way of thinking and I’ve got to adjust my mindset some now… Because you don’t know how many you’re going to lose (to the transfer portal). And thus that forces you… If you lose ‘X’ amount, you’ve gotta go get ‘X’ amount out of the portal.”

It’s clear the transfer portal will continue to be a player for Auburn’s football program moving forward.

Not necessarily because Freeze wants it to be, but because Freeze recognizes that it needs to be.

“My preference would be to develop kids,” Freeze said. “But the process of becoming is kinda being lost.”

Once upon a time, it was standard to develop a high school signee for two years. Then by the time his junior season came around, “he’s ready to roll”, Freeze says.

But with the transfer portal being a huge player, that kind of patience isn’t needed or expected these days. And that puts a bigger weight on landing the blue-chip guys – the 4- and 5-stars that have the potential to see the field in Year 1. Because if they don’t do it at Auburn, they’ll begin to wonder if they can do it elsewhere.

So those top-talent players are the ones Freeze and his staff have zeroed in on. And so far, there’s been success to celebrate.

In late-July, Freeze and the Tigers made their first big splash on the recruiting trail as they landed the commitment of 5-star linebacker Demarcus Riddick, who chose Auburn over recruiting blue bloods, Alabama and Georgia.

Days later, the second domino fell during Auburn’s “Big Cat Weekend” recruiting event, when 5-star wide receiver Perry Thompson flipped his commitment from Alabama to Auburn.

In an interview that preceded his commitment, Thompson told AL.com that he never heard from Auburn before Freeze was brought to The Plains.

Mind you, Thompson plays for Foley High School – an in-state high school located less than four hours south of Auburn. But the Tigers never bothered coming knocking under Harsin’s leadership.

But that was standard procedure under Harsin. Of the bare minimum recruiting that was being done, very, very little of it was happening in Auburn’s backyard.

An AL.com article written in August featured the comments of local high school football coaches, all of which said something in the vein of this: Had Harsin and his staff recruited more in the state of Alabama, he would have had considerably better luck bringing in considerably better talent – but that never happened.

“You really better do your homework,” said Opelika coach Erik Speakman in August. “And I think that’s what you’re seeing now with Coach Freeze is his familiarity with the SEC from his time at Ole Miss and just the emphasis on getting in-state guys that wanna be at Auburn and wanna play for Auburn and then those guys in Georgia and some guys from Florida.”

After losing to Georgia on Saturday, Freeze and Auburn were granted with a much-needed bye week.

It’s an opportunity for the Tigers to get healthy after an injury-ridden start to the season. It’s also an opportunity to iron out the countless wrinkles that still exist.

But perhaps more importantly, it’s an opportunity to spend some time on the recruiting trail. And that’s what Freeze did.

Freeze’s Monday was spent all around the state of Alabama.

First, he spoke at Birmingham’s Monday Morning Quarterback Club. Then he made his way down to Mobile, Ala. to visit with the C Spire 1st & 10 Club.

But during the time and miles in between his pair of speaking engagements, Freeze was dropping by Alabama high schools in efforts to recruit the state’s top talent.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was a priority,” Freeze said. “The whole state of Alabama is one that is a priority for us at Auburn, along with Georgia and Mississippi. And then we’ll spot recruit at a lot of other place. But Alabama is our home state and there’s players in Mobile and all across the state.”

On Thursday and Friday this week, Freeze said he and his coaching staff would be scattered about on the recruiting trail.

“I don’t think any head coach puts more of a premium on recruiting than I do right now… It’s the lifeblood.”