Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and is expected to make a full recovery after doctors detected the disease in its early stages, the school announced Friday.
Freeze, 55, will continue coaching the Tigers while receiving treatment, Auburn officials said in a statement.
“Recently, Coach Freeze was diagnosed with an early form of prostate cancer,” the statement said. “Thankfully, it was detected early and his doctors have advised that it is very treatable and curable. He will continue his normal coaching duties and responsibilities, and with forthcoming proper treatment, is expected to make a full recovery.
Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze did not make the trip to Lexington alongside the rest of his team for his team’s upcoming game against Kentucky.
But Freeze is still expected to be pacing the sidelines when the Tigers and Wildcats kick off at 7:45 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Freeze is battling an illness, with symptoms that seem to indicate it’s food poisoning, and was unable to make the trip with the team on Friday, sources told Pete Thamel of ESPN.
But Freeze reportedly flew to Lexington on Saturday morning and is still expected to coach the Tigers. It’s not the first time Freeze has battled through sickness to coach.
During his tenure as coach of Liberty, Freeze, before an August 2019 game against Syracuse, held team meetings from a hospital bed while recovering from surgery to treat a serious staph infection. Freeze eventually was wheeled into the stadium and coached the game from a hospital bed inside what used to be a radio/TV booth in the press box of Arthur L. Williams Stadium.
While the circumstances are not quite the same this time around, Freeze will still be a welcome presence on the sidelines in a pivotal game for Auburn. The Tigers (2-5) are looking to stop a four-game skid that saw the program lose three straight contests to ranked teams (Oklahoma, Georgia and Missouri).
