Auburn Tigers have Hugh Freeze's Back Despite Challenging Season

Hugh Freeze suffering through a bout of serious food poisoning serves to unite Auburn Tigers behind their embattled leader.

Hugh Freeze battled food poisoning to join his Auburn Tigers team in Kentucky, and his players took notice. / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze's unfortunate bout of food poisoning led him to missing Friday's team meeting prior to Saturday's game against the Kentucky Wildcats. As things transpired, the unexpected change to the established routine was perhaps a good thing for all concerned..

Yet another added layer of adversity worked like a charm for once, but Freeze opted to downplay the entire incident.

"The only thing that really was different was Friday," Freeze explained after the 24-10 win over Kentucky on Saturday. "I wasn't in the team meetings at the hotel Friday night. I told our football administrator that we might need to just do that every Saturday - just whatever works. That's the only thing that was different. I got here today for all our meetings. So, the Friday meeting would have been miserable for everybody if I had tried to travel yesterday with them. But nothing was really different other than I missed the Friday night meetings."

Breaking with the norm was forced upon the Tigers, but by circling the wagons around their head coach, they proved to themselves that they can get on the same page when they really have to.

By the time Freeze returned to the team on Saturday, according to defensive lineman Keldric Faulk, it gave the Tigers a real boost to get over the hump against Kentucky.

"I knew he wasn't gonna miss this game for anything," Faulk declared after the game. "He loves his players, he loves the game, he loves Auburn. I didn't have a change in my routine because I knew he was coming. I knew he was gonna be behind us every step of the way."

On the flip side, getting some additional time away from coach Freeze might have appealed to quarterback Payton Thorne. After all, the Tigers signal caller has incurred the very obvious wrath of his head coach on multiple occasions this season already.

Therefore, it was a pretty interesting insight into the duo's complicated dynamic that Thorne was really pulling for Freeze to get back on the sideline.

"We're happy to have him here with us and looked like he was feeling better," Thorne said..

Despite Freeze being absent on Friday, the Tigers still looked a particularly well prepared outfit when they got down to business against the Wildcats.. 

That's testament to the group of coaches Freeze has assembled, and also how his young group is ready to accept some added responsibilities. 

Battling through the physical weakness he suffered in order to help get his team over the line struck a powerful chord with his guys, one they must now positively build upon moving forward.

Team bonding comes in many different guises, but with Tigers needing to win most of their remaining games to help them clinch a bowl berth, it will be back to more conventional forms of motivation this week for Freeze and Co.