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.

“Coach Freeze is incredibly appreciative of our medical professionals and has asked that we use his experience as a reminder of the importance of prioritizing and scheduling annual health screenings.”

The Tigers are scheduled to start spring practice March 25.

Freeze’s teams went 11-14 (5-11 SEC) in his first two seasons, including a 5-7 campaign in 2024. With the additions of transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma), wide receivers Eric Singleton Jr. (Georgia Tech) and Horatio Fields (Wake Forest), offensive tackle Xavier Chaplin (Virginia Tech), and others, the Tigers are expected to be much improved this coming season.

At Liberty, Freeze coached from a hospital bed set up in the coaches’ box during the Flames’ 24-0 loss to Syracuse in his debut on Aug. 31, 2019. Freeze was recovering from surgery for a herniated disk in his back and a staph infection.

College football teams could soon be charged with a timeout or penalty for players faking injuries well after plays during games.

The NCAA football rules committee has proposed a timeout to be charged whenever medical personnel enter the field to evaluate players after the ball has been spotted for the ensuing play. Teams without timeouts would be assessed a five-yard delay-of-game penalty for each instance.

The proposal is among several that will go back to schools and then go before the NCAA’s playing rules oversight panel for possible approval in April.

Faking injuries has become a significant topic in recent years, with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and others admonishing the practice. The SEC implemented guidelines that included fines and potential suspensions for coaches whose players repeatedly fake injuries. The American Football Coaches Association had proposed requiring any players who need medical attention to miss an entire possession, rather than only one play, but the rules committee instead proposed losing timeouts.

“If we have a player that’s struggling and the official stops the clock to get that player out, we will not invoke the timeout,” said Steve Shaw, the secretary-rules editor for football and the SEC and Sun Belt’s coordinator of football officials. “There’s these plays where the ball’s down, the defense is still trying to get to their side of the ball, and a player falls down. Those are the types of plays that we don’t want, that we think is a bad look, and we think this rule will address it.”

Shaw reiterated that legitimately injured players should stay down and require a stoppage to receive medical attention. But many of the suspicious instances occurred after the ball was spotted for the next play.

“Coaches value their timeouts incredibly,” Shaw said. “Making this a timeout, if a player were to wait and then go down very late, the coaches would really be against unless you’re really injured, and then they may have needed a timeout anyway.”

The rules committee also proposed limiting timeouts in games that reach the third overtime period or longer. Teams currently have a timeout for each overtime period, but the proposal would limit them to one total timeout after the second OT. The Georgia–Georgia Tech regular-season finale in November, which spanned eight overtime periods, included three timeouts after the second session, all before two-point conversion attempts.

“We didn’t want to create a situation where the offense goes out, looks at the defense, calls timeout, then they get back out there, the defense calls timeout,” Shaw said. “You see that in basketball a lot of time. That just prolongs the game. We said, ‘We’re going to give everybody a timeout.’ We’ll continue to monitor it.”

The overtime timeouts proposal was among several that could be tied to recent high-profile incidents. Another proposal would allow offenses to reset the game clock within two minutes of each half when a defense commits a penalty for too many men on the field and participates in the play.

Oregon received a 12-men-on-the-field penalty at the end of an Oct. 12 game against Ohio State, which resulted in a penalty but also removed four valuable seconds from the clock. Trailing 32-31, the Buckeyes tried to get closer for a field goal attempt, but the clock expired on the ensuing play, giving the Ducks the win.

The NCAA soon issued a new rules interpretation that seemingly closed the loophole and is in line with the latest rules committee proposal.

Another proposal would whistle kickoff returns dead any time the return team makes a “T” signal with its arms. The situation surfaced in the Citrus Bowl between Illinois and South Carolina, leading to a testy on-field exchange between coaches Bret Bielema and Shane Beamer.

“We don’t want to try to guess on where trends may be going,” said A.J. Edds, co-chair of the rules committee and vice president of football for the Big Ten. “We want to take real information and cite real instances to help inform perspectives before the committee collectively evaluates and potentially takes action. But not unlike other leagues, when something comes to light, whether it’s a play or a series of play or instances of plays, if there’s a way to improve the way that they’re officiated … that’s certainly at the forefront and the crux of all of our conversation.”

Other proposals included referees only using the terms “upheld” or “overturned” to describe replay rulings rather than “confirmed” or “stands” and the adoption of coach-to-player helmet communication for FCS teams after a successful first year in the FBS.

The rules committee had extensive discussions about targeting fouls and made a recommendation to the conference commissioners on College Football Officiating’s board of managers. But Shaw noted that the targeting rule as it’s defined — and whether to disqualify offenders or overturn — will not change.

“The targeting rule has served us very well,” Shaw said. “We had the lowest number of disqualifications, 0.14 targeting fouls enforced per game this year. I know fans think there’s one in every game, but there’s just not, so we’re going in the right direction. There was no back-away from targeting at all.”

North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi acknowledged that the program, under new coach Bill Belichick, is considering a behind-the-scenes look at the team amid a report that the Tar Heels could be the focus of HBO’s “Hard Knocks: Offseason.”

“There’s a lot of conversations going on right now about that,” Lombardi said on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday. “We’ve had a lot of offers from people all over to come in and look at our program and kind of do the behind-the-scenes things, but I don’t think anything’s yet been official or signed.”

Lombardi was asked about a Front Office Sports report that North Carolina would be featured on the show that debuted last year with the New York Giants and is an offshoot of long-running HBO series “Hard Knocks.” He said it would be a university decision but added that “Hard Knocks” does an “incredible job.”

Belichick was hired as North Carolina coach in December for his first foray into the college ranks, and he brought on Lombardi to serve as the team’s general manager.

Lombardi said the possibility of getting a look at how Belichick runs the team would be compelling.

“There’s not many times you can have the greatest coach of all time take you into a meeting,” Lombardi said.

Belichick never took part in “Hard Knocks” during his NFL coaching career, as the New England Patriots were never selected for the program, which debuted in 2001.

According to Front Office Sports, North Carolina was chosen, in part, due to reluctance from NFL teams to participate in the offseason version of the show after the Giants drew scrutiny due largely to revelations related to their decision not to re-sign running back Saquon Barkley.

“If you’re doing ‘Hard Knocks,’ you’ve gotta really be able to teach a class … on how this all happens,” Lombardi said.