Auburn officially introduces Hugh Freeze as head coach
A day after announcing that Auburn University has hired Liberty Coach Hugh Freeze to be the 31st head football coach in the history of the program, the University held a formal press conference in Auburn to officially introduce Coach Freeze to the program’s alumnae and supporters. During the press conference, Freeze announced that he had hired interim Auburn head football Coach Carnell “Cadillac” Williams as associate head coach and that Cadillac would be staying with the program. “To me, it was a direct reflection of Cadillac and his leadership and how he led the staff and those staff,” Freeze said, praising Williams for his performance as interim coach. “I knew I had to have Cadillac on my side to help me drive the culture of Auburn football.” “It has always been my desire to remain at Auburn,” Williams said in a statement. “Last night, I was able to meet with Coach Freeze where shared his core values and vision for the football program and young men he will be coaching. He is a man of faith, and we share many of the same values when it comes to coaching. I am excited about his vision and plan for getting Auburn back to its winning ways, including winning championships!” “Coach Freeze asked me to stay on and join his staff as Associate Head Coach,” Williams said. “I accepted the position and am excited about working with him and learning from him. I ask that the Auburn Family join me in supporting Coach Freeze and getting Auburn football back on the winning track!” Auburn originally offered this job to current Ole Miss head football Coach Lane Kiffin. Kiffin turned the job down, opting to stay at Ole Miss, where he reportedly signed a $9 million extension on Tuesday. Many in the fan base had wanted the University to hire Williams as head coach. When Kiffin did not take the position, it went to Freeze. Reportedly Kiffin and Freeze were the only people considered for the job by new Auburn Athletics Director John Cohen, a former coach and athletics director who previously worked at Mississippi State. The hiring of Freeze has been met with skepticism by many and outright hostility by some. The Alabama Media Group’s Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist John Archibald wrote, “The university, after all, ignored a few things to hire him as football coach today. It overlooked his NCAA issues and the “pattern of personal misconduct” found by his old employer, Ole Miss. It overlooked 12 calls he made to escort services on Ole Miss phones and the claims of three women who say he acted inappropriately as a high school coach. It overlooked the way he reportedly reached out unsolicited to a sexual assault survivor to defend his own bosses at Liberty University.” Joseph Acosta wrote, “They can say that he’s a known winner and that this is a “win at all costs” move, which quite frankly is bullshit. He has a below .500 record in SEC competition at .475, including the wins that were vacated. For comparison, HOUSTON NUTT has a .491 record in SEC competition. Gus Malzahn, who Auburn fired in 2020 and is paying $21.5 million, has won more games in his career than Hugh Freeze.” Hugh Freeze had initial success as head coach at Ole Miss, including one ten-win season, but ultimately most of his wins at the school had to be vacated after the NCAA found that the football program under Freeze had committed a number of recruiting violations. Ole Miss then fired Freeze after the school learned that he had made a dozen phone calls to a Florida escort service on his University paid for phone. Freeze denied a media report that Auburn has required that he turn over control of his social media accounts to the University. Many Auburn fans, particularly on social media boards, have expressed skepticism about Freeze’s integrity. “Integrity is not always getting it right, or none of us would have it,” Freeze said. “It’s really when you don’t get it right what do you do, and you look at the end of the day of the film of your game, the film of your practice, the film of your life, the film of your decisions, and they don’t lie. And you have to own that at the end of the day, and guess what? Sometimes there are consequences when you don’t get it exactly right. We fumbled the ball eight times. You probably are not going to win. There is a consequence to that. You made a really poor decision. There may be a consequence to that, and that is Ok. It’s not great, and there may be consequences. You must accept those consequences, make the necessary changes, and get up the next day and play the next play.” “I see this as one of the top ten football programs in America, and I believe that,” Freeze told reporters. “We need you,” Freeze continued. “We need the fans. We need the Auburn family. We need the staff. We need the players. We need everyone in this building that is involved in our program to buy in to our core values to drive this train to get it where everyone wants to be. It is all of us that must pull together – the Auburn family.” A repentant Freeze asked that the Auburn family just give him a chance. “I don’t know anybody in this room who does not deserve a second chance,” Freeze explained. “I think everybody deserves a second chance, and I think we have fought to earn people’s trust back…Please give me a chance to earn your trust.” Auburn has reportedly hired a public relations firm to handle the blowback from this controversial hiring. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
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.
