AUBURN | Relentless. Fearless. Night and day
Give him 18 months and this place will be full of dudes.
I’m not going anywhere because we’re going to win championships.
Those are just some of the words I’ve heard about Hugh Freeze in the last couple of days from current Auburn staffers that also served under the previous regime.
A seismic change is coming to the Tigers’ recruiting efforts. We’re seeing a nice preview of it over the 10 days leading up to Signing Day but that’s just the opening salvo of even bigger things to come in the 2024, 25 and plenty more classes to come.
Finally, Auburn has a coach that understands what it takes to consistently win at the highest level of college football and that’s talent acquisition.
His two coordinator hires Sunday confirmed it.
By bringing in a veteran defensive coordinator in Ron Roberts to run that side of the ball and a veteran offensive coordinator in Phillip Montgomery to take on a large part of running the other side of the ball, Freeze has freed himself up to spend more time recruiting.
And he just happens to be very good at that job.
The failures of the previous two head coaches in recruiting have led to back-to-back losing seasons and left the 2023 roster in a perilous situation.
Freeze is working overtime to flip that script and get Auburn back to winning right away. It’s not a three-year project. More like three weeks, at least for phase one.
Important steps were taken this weekend with two commitments and a talented group of visitors. There’s even more to come over the next nine days.
Dare I say, just watch.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 52 years to the final live appearance by one of the greatest lead singers and songwriters of the 1960’s. On Dec. 12, 1970, Jim Morrison of the Doors performed at a concert in New Orleans. Struggling with alcohol and drug addiction, Morrison had to cut short his final song, Light My Fire, before leaving the stage for the final time. He died less than seven months later for what was believed to be heart failure due to a heroin overdose. In his six years with the Doors, Morrison helped them become one of the leading counterculture groups of the era and the first American band to have eight consecutive gold albums. The Doors, which released three albums after Morrison’s death, sold over 100 million records worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Rolling Stone ranks the Doors No. 41 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
James Douglas Morrison was born in 1943 in Melbourne, Fla. His father was a rear admiral in the Navy and he spent time growing up in San Diego, Virginia, Texas and Albuquerque. Morrison graduated near the top of his class at George Washington High School in Alexandria, Va., in 1961 and earned a a degree from UCLA’s film school in 1965. He lived a nomadic lifestyle in Venice Beach, Calif., after graduating, eventually meeting keyboardist Ray Manzarek. They co-founded the Doors and added guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore to round out the group. Morrison, a prolific reader of books, especially philosophy, named the group after The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley. In 1967, they signed with Elektra and had their breakout hit with the No. 1 single Light My Fire from their self-titled debut album. With Morrison writing or co-writing most of the songs, the Doors produced five more albums over the next four years with a number of hit singles including a second No. 1 hit, Hello, I Love You, along with People Are Strange, Love Me Two Times, Riders On The Storm and Love Her Madly. His final appearance at the Warehouse in New Orleans came as the Doors began recording their sixth studio album, L.A. Woman. Afterwards, Morrison and his girlfriend, Pamela Courson, decided to move to Paris in March of 1971. He died July 3 at the age of 27, which makes him part of the 27 Club that includes Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.
