In a 12-game regular season, no coach -- including those under any sort of pressure -- wants to overrate the meaning of one particular game.
However, that doesn't mean they can't acknowledge when one is important for their team or their own reputation.
Auburn football's win over Baylor on Friday was important for both the team and head coach Hugh Freeze, and he acknowledged that when speaking during the SEC teleconference on Wednesday.
"We're not naive to what the world desires of you in these seats. All of us know that," Freeze said. "I'm never one to make too much of one game, win or lose, but there's no question for this season that was a very big game."
On the surface, all the win did was start Auburn's season on a positive note and add a nice nonconference road win to its resume. Beyond that, it could momentarily calm the anxiety of Auburn fans and take some of the outside pressure off of Freeze, at least until Auburn travels to Norman in two weeks.
Marquee wins haven't been common for Auburn through the first two seasons of Freeze's tenure. Time will tell how impressive Friday's win truly is, but traveling to beat a Power Four team that won eight games last season is still an achievement.
If for no other reason, that's the case because those kinds of results were hard to come by in 2023 and 2024. Since it was only Week 1 and Baylor was unranked, it's too early to call the win season or tenure-defining, but Freeze is well aware of its importance.
"Career wise, I don't know where that really lands," Freeze said. "But it was certainly a big victory to get our season started."