AUBURN | Hugh Freeze has questioned himself over the last several years on how hard to coach his players during the transfer portal era.

It’s a legitimate concern with players able to jump from school to school without any restrictions.

Watching Auburn struggle to a 2-5 start this season including 0-4 in the SEC, however, has ended all of those questions and given Freeze a clear path forward.

“That is real. That’s not something that is just made up. It’s something that you have to come to a decision on, ‘What is your approach to that?’ I think we’re all learning what that exactly looks like,” said Freeze.

“I’ve kinda made up my mind going into that open week and the week leading up to the Missouri game — told our staff this — I’ve made up my mind, I’ve got to be who I am and we’ve got to coach them hard.”

Freeze believes the best players want to be coached hard and want discipline in order to develop the best they can at the college level and eventually play in the NFL.

“If you can’t coach the mistakes out of them in practice because you’re afraid to coach them, those mistakes will continue to happen in the game,” said Freeze. “And we’ve seen that on tape. I kinda went back to we don’t demean kids but we’re going to coach them hard. And the good ones should want that. And that’s what I told our team, that’s what I told our coaches. That’s kinda the approach I’ve got to take from this point forward.

“I don’t want to lose players. I don’t care for this transfer world because I think people need to learn to stick with something and go through the hard. But you know what, if they don’t want to go through the hard and they don’t want to be developed, then we’re probably not going to win with them long-term anyway.”

Auburn plays at Kentucky Saturday at 6:45 p.m. CT on SEC Network.