AUBURN | The transfer portal, which opens in less than a month, will be crucial for Hugh Freeze and his staff in injecting Auburn roster with talent in several key areas.

It’s also crucial in retaining AU’s top players currently on the roster. And that process has already started.

“You're already actively having to engage in conversations with recruiting your current roster, which is not much fun and not something that I know of any coach that's really for, but it is what it is,” said Freeze.

Freeze says he relies on his player personnel assistants and the On To Victory NIL program staff to lay most of the groundwork with his current roster.

“I'm thankful for them and that I don't have to engage in most of those because that would be really, really very hard to do and difficult because, you know, you want to have genuine, real relationships that are built on trust and communication,” said Freeze. “And that's more and more difficult to do if you're having to handle every single facet and aspect of today's game.

“Obviously you're involved at some point. I'll have to be. But you're hoping that a lot of that can be handled by our people that are involved in other areas outside of just the coaching.”

The fall transfer portal will be open from Dec. 9 to Dec. 28 for players to enter. It opens five days after National Signing Day on Dec. 4 and nine days after the Tigers conclude the regular season at No. 9 Alabama Nov. 30.

Auburn hosts ULM Saturday at 11:45 a.m. CT on SEC Network.