Hugh Freeze, Auburn Tigers Feeling Positive Vibes ahead of Iron Bowl

The mood around the Auburn Tigers program is significantly different ahead of their clash with the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl on Saturday.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze and quarterback Payton Thorne hope to extend the season one game by beating Alabama. / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Much like a bedraggled boxer who has been pinned on ropes for much of the fight, Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze is still in with a genuine puncher's chance as the Iron Bowl against Alabama looms into view.

Beating Texas A&M last Saturday helped break the ignominious streak of Auburn finding ways to lose games they should have won. Prevailing through the war of attrition has given Freeze and Co. a late injection of timely confidence.

"You have zero chance of winning if you don't have a belief that you can do it," Freeze insisted during media availability this week. "And I think somewhere along the line in these difficult losses , we've started believing more. And hope has become a real thing - that you can go on the field and beat good football teams. You've played close games with them, but you can win them.

"And it's going to take, you know, an amount of that belief going into Tuscaloosa to win; it's not an easy place to play."

No matter what sport you are talking about, the principles of grinding out results remain the same down through the annals of time. Sadly for Freeze, and his youthful team, they just haven't learned how to win consistently yet.

Of course, everyone will be hopeful that the gritty win over the Aggies is merely a springboard to far greater success, and we all know Auburn certainly won't need any additional motivation to put one over Alabama in the Iron Bowl. 

As far as Freeze is concerned, it's partly about sending an immediate message that Auburn has the stomach for the fight, and maybe more importantly, the program is hell-bent on playing the long game with a much younger team.

Freeze has sent out some extremely-positive vibes this week, but that might have been massively different if one or two things had conspired against them last Saturday night.

Having said all of that, it does somehow feel that by pulling one out of the fire, it did indeed wash away a multitude of sins which have haunted the Tigers throughout this troubled season.

Just when he needed it most, the locker room dug deep and found the kind of reserves that could point to a much brighter future down on the Plains.

In recent days, the likes of wide receiver Cam Coleman have even been bullish enough to talk a little trash toward the wounded Alabama program. 

So just maybe this Auburn Tigers team has turned a corner.