Hugh Freeze and Auburn may have lost last week's highly anticipated matchup against Oklahoma, but the Tigers' coach believes the Sooners aren't as good as his team's next opponent.
Days after the 24-17 defeat in Norman, Freeze seemed to both praise upcoming foe Texas A&M and diss Oklahoma in the same breath.
“Hugh Freeze says on Tiger Talk he thinks Texas A&M is better than Oklahoma: ‘They're more complete,'” 247 Sports Auburn reporter Nathan King posted on X, formerly Twitter.
What that means for Auburn's chances in this weekend's meeting with the Aggies is unknown, considering Oklahoma handed the Tigers their first loss of the season. However, in fairness, A&M is only a few spots below OU in the AP Top 10 — the Aggies are No. 9, while the Sooners jumped up to No. 7 after the win — and A&M is coming off a come-from-behind road win against Notre Dame.
Still, Oklahoma fans probably won't take kindly to the comment after a bitter game that featured a controversial play in which Isaiah Sategna lined up almost out of bounds and, unrecognized by the Auburn defense, scored on a wide-open touchdown pass-and-catch that put the Sooners ahead in the second quarter.
The SEC came out after the game and declared that the play, which caused a fiery reaction by Freeze on the Tigers' sidelines, should have been negated by a penalty on Oklahoma for intentionally ‘deceiving' the defense. Of course, that ruling did nothing about the result, a one-score loss to open SEC play.
While Auburn will be in College Station this weekend for a matchup against another top-10 team, Oklahoma has the week off before a non-conference meeting with Kent State on Oct. 4. After that, though, the Sooners will play archrival Texas in the Red River Rivalry on Oct. 11.
If both Oklahoma and Texas are still ranked in the top 10 by then, as they are now, it would mark the first time that has happened since 2008, when the No. 5 Longhorns defeated the top-ranked Sooners 45-35.
