SEC Coach 'Scared To Death' By How Chippy Practice Has Been

Auburn football practice has gotten a little too intense as the season opener approaches, according to Tigers' head coach Hugh Freeze.

Freeze spoke recently to media about how practice has progressed as Week 1 kickoff inches closer and closer. Out of the gate, the Auburn coach actually admitted that the intensity of practice lately is really starting to scare him.

"The effort has been great," Freeze said of practice. "It's been a little too chippy and unprotective a couple of days, and I don't know exactly how to balance that."

That chippiness certainly concerns Freeze.

"It scares me to death, truthfully," he admitted. "Because we need to stay healthy, we're not that deep at places. So we've stressed that heavily of trying to practice cleaner without people on the ground and it has gotten a little better."

He could tone down the physicality, but Freeze isn't sure that helps the team long-term.

"I guess you could go the route of not having a lot of contact, but I just don't know that you can win in this league without having some physical practices in camp," he added.

There's a price to pay if you have extremely physical practices throughout the offseason, per Freeze, and Auburn almost paid it.

"But we did have two days in a row with some really scary things that easily could have hurt somebody," he added. "It's not the easiest thing and I don't know that I have the answer."

Well, the good news is that Auburn is locked in and going at each other in practice, but Hugh Freeze is just worried that could lead to some undesired injury setbacks.

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