AUBURN | It’s a game tailor-made for a bit of a letdown.

Auburn is coming off three consecutive conference wins including last Saturday’s 48-10 thumping at Arkansas and hosts Alabama in the 88th Iron Bowl next weekend.

But this Saturday, it will be New Mexico State, riding a six-game winning streak, that will be visiting Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“It’s a game that has our full attention,” said Freeze. “I think they’re one of the better Group of 5 teams in the country. And Coach (Jerry) Kill, I think, is one of the better football coaches I’ve gone against. They’ve got a quarterback that extends plays and makes things interesting for you. They’re on a six-game winning streak and playing for the conference championship. And it’s sandwiched between a stretch of SEC games and our Iron Bowl, which always makes me nervous.

“I think we’ve got to make sure the leadership of our team understands that and comes out and plays with the same intensity that we have the last few weeks.”

Every coach has a version of playing one game at a time and Freeze’s has certainly taken hold of the Tigers in year one.

“You come into each week and you don't really focus on who they are. It's all about scouting them out and treating them as the best team you're going to play,” said senior tight end Tyler Fromm. “That's what we're going to do this week and then next week we'll figure out what we're going to do for the Iron Bowl. It'll be awesome.”

It’s those seniors and team leaders that Freeze credits for keeping the team together during a four-game losing streak and allowing them to bounce back and enter the NMSU game at 6-4 overall.

“That thing could of gone a lot of different ways at that moment,” said Freeze. “So I think we owe a big debt of gratitude to our young men for staying engaged and going to work everyday and kind of turning things around and getting us to a bowl game.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT on SEC Network.