Hugh Freeze will become Auburn’s next head football coach
Auburn University announced on Monday that Liberty Coach Hugh Freeze would be Auburn’s next head football coach. “After a thoughtful, thorough, and well-vetted search, we ended where we started, with Hugh Freeze,” Auburn Athletics Director John Cohen said in a statement. “Of all the candidates we considered, Hugh was the best fit. Fit has several meanings, but the most important factors were student-athlete development, football strategy, recruiting, and SEC experience.” ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is reporting that the job was offered to Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin on Friday, but he turned down the job, electing to accept a $9 million-dollar-a-year contract extension with the Rebels instead. Freeze and Kiffin had been the only two coaches seriously considered by Auburn officials in the search that most people believe began even before Coach Bryan Harsin was fired midseason. Freeze spent the last four years coaching at Liberty after he was fired at Ole Miss, where he was the coach from 2012 to 2016. Freeze is a known commodity within the Southeastern Conference coaching community. Many Auburn fans had wanted interim Coach Carnell “Cadillac” Williams to get the job, but it appears that decision-makers at Auburn never seriously considered Cadillac for the opening. Williams, the only Black head football Coach in Auburn history, is a former Auburn and NFL player. Williams had been the running backs coach under Harsin. He finished 2 and 2 as the interim coach. “First, I want to acknowledge Cadillac Williams for the incredible job he did as interim head coach,” Freeze said in a statement. “The impact he made is immeasurable and cannot be overstated. Secondly, Auburn is one of the preeminent programs in college football, and I’m very appreciative of President [Chris] Roberts and John Cohen for this opportunity at Auburn. I’ve been fortunate to witness first-hand how special Auburn is during my time as a head coach in the SEC and while visiting my daughter Jordan who attended Auburn and currently lives in the community. I can’t wait to work with our student-athletes and the Auburn family to bring championships back to the Plains.” Freeze inherits a roster decimated by the transfer portal and two successive poor recruiting classes. Retaining Auburn’s commitments and finishing out this recruiting class will be the first challenge. As Harsin brought many assistants with him from Boise State, Freeze will need to build a staff quickly to get them out on the road recruiting in anticipation of the early signing period. Auburn finished 5 and 7 in 2022 and is not bowl-eligible unless there are not enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all of the 84 bowl berths. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Auburn University fires Bryan Harsin as football coach
The Auburn University football team went into halftime on Saturday trailing the Arkansas Razorbacks in a tight game. The visiting Razorbacks came out at halftime and completely dominated Auburn. Auburn got two late scores to make the 41 to 27 game closer than it appeared, but Auburn fans had already begun leaving the stadium by the thousands. New University President Chris Roberts and the decision makers at Auburn had seen enough, and on Monday, the decision was announced that head football coach Bryan Harsin was fired. Last year’s team finished 6 and 6 and went to a bowl game in Birmingham. After losses to Penn State, Ole Miss, LSU, and Arkansas and poor play in victories over Mercer, San Jose State, and Missouri that were often more disturbing for Auburn fans than the losses, it was apparent that year two of the Harsin era was not going to even approach the low bar set in 2020 that resulted in an attempted coup and formal investigation of the football program by the outgoing administration. Athletics Director Allen Greene, who hired Harsin, left in August when it was apparent that his contract was not going to be renewed. On Monday, Auburn announced that new AD John Cohen will make $1.5 million a year. The first act of his tenure was firing Harsin and beginning the search for Auburn’s next football coach. Harsin was hired by Greene just 22 months ago over booster’s objections, who preferred former defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. The fans and boosters never really rallied behind Harsin, the former Boise State Coach; but a losing record, two horrid recruiting classes, spats with assistant coaches, and an exodus of talented players out of the transfer portal meant that Harsin never gave the Auburn faithful much to cheer about. Roberts and the leadership made the decision that the program could not realistically let Harsin coach out his six-year $31.5 million contract so it was better to end the Harsin era now rather than waiting to the end of November to begin the coaching search. “Auburn University has decided to make a change in the leadership of the Auburn University football program,” the University said in a statement on Monday. “President Roberts made the decision after a thorough review and evaluation of all aspects of the football program. Auburn will begin an immediate search for a coach that will return the Auburn program to a place where it is consistently competing at the highest levels and representing the winning tradition that is Auburn football.” As of press time, the University has not announced who will be the interim coach. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Jim Zeigler: Leave AU coach alone — along with all employees
President Joe Biden has decreed that employers of over 100 and those with federal contracts must mandate that their employees get the COVID vaccination. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has said that she is against the mandate but failed to ban it in a weak executive order. She also failed to include a mandate bill in her call for a special session on redistricting. Auburn head football coach Bryan Harsin contracted COVID in August. He recovered. That likely means he is immune. Harsin is being asked if he is vaccinated. He has exercised his right to make no comment. If the vaccine mandate winds up interfering with SEC football right at the climax of the season, there will be an uprising like you never saw. Can you imagine if they fire coaches and staff right before the Iron Bowl, traditional rivalry games, and the SEC championship game? No one should be threatened with losing their job if they make a personal decision about their own healthcare. This mandate is now putting thousands of Alabama workers at risk for their livelihood, retirement benefits, and insurance. Gov. Ivey needs to quickly look at what is being done by Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas. She needs to simply ban vaccine mandates in Alabama. If the Feds take Alabama to court, we can fight it there while our workers remain on the job. Jim Zeigler, Alabama State Auditor
