This is an opinion column

First things first. Look on the bright side, and give Hugh Freeze a sliver of credit. Auburn’s new football coach provided a pleasant surprise Monday separate and apart from his terrible, horrible, no-good idea to turn intrasquad spring games into in-state exhibition games.

He mentioned UAB and Troy.

That alone is no small thing. Iron Bowl coaches on both sides of the rivalry have a disturbing tendency to pretend that UAB and Troy don’t exist. They either pay lip service to the notion of playing those in-state opponents while enriching other C-USA and Sun Belt teams — paging Nick Saban — or they play in-state opponents with little to no chance of competing with them.

At Auburn, that’s the fact, SWAC.

So give props to Freeze at least for acknowledging the Blazers and the Trojans. Maybe spending the last four years at Liberty increased his appreciation for the difficulty of life beyond the SEC and the Power Five. Where he lost his way in this discussion was his why.