Close simply doesn’t cut it for Hugh Freeze at Auburn anymore
By David Wasson
Published:
Sitting in a stuffy room deep inside Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday night, the 29th head football coach in Auburn history sat staring blankly toward a bank of cameras trying to find the right words.
This 56-year-old coach, who wound his way back into the SEC after being bounced out of Oxford in shame, was trying to process yet another disappointing loss – yet another in what surely felt like a freight train of “what if?” opportunities that never seem to turn the Tigers’ way.
Feeling the weight of a crumbling career, a rusting reputation as an offensive guru and a season that must feel like a bad dream he couldn’t wake up from, the coach took a swig of water and managed to utter this…
“I still believe we’re really close.”
Yes, Danny Hugh Freeze Jr. still believes in his 2025 Auburn Tigers. Belief is good. We should all have belief in what we do, after all. But much like kids believe in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, eventually the hard truth ushers itself into reality.
That truth must be coming for Hugh Freeze. Maybe today, even. The truth that being really close isn’t worth a darn thing. The truth that Auburn was just a play or 2 away from beating lowly Kentucky at home on Saturday, although the final scoreboard unblinkingly read 10-3 in favor of those lowly Wildcats.
The truth that those “Fire Hugh” chants that rained down from the Auburn faithful as their coach trudged off the Pat Dye Field turf sounded all too much like what Florida fans catcalled Billy Napier with in Gainesville, Brian Kelly heard echoing in the night in Baton Rouge and Sam Pittman felt in the pit of his stomach in Fayetteville.
Freeze will get fired, it is certain, as Auburn will yet again throw its football program into the ring seeking yet another new coach – embarking on that search while the identical searches are going on at Florida, LSU and Arkansas in the SEC alone. The search will re-commence while swallowing Freeze’s $15.4 million buyout just like it did a similar figure paid out to make Bryan Harsin go away in 2022.
That figure, in the wild current climate of college football, is peanuts compared to the ransom LSU owes Kelly and also a fraction of what Penn State owes James Franklin after the Nittany Lions fired him.
In the grand scheme, it is just another check Auburn will end up scratching to just another coach to make him go away.
But through a wider lens, the dollar amount isn’t as relative as what it represents.
Failure.
Auburn football has been searching for its’ modern-day Pat Dye pretty much since 1992 with decidedly mixed results. Tommy Tuberville won 6 straight against Alabama and a claim at the 2004 national championship, but Auburn officials tried to replace him by taking a covert plane flight to lure Bobby Petrino. Gene Chizik paired with the son of a preacher man to win the undisputed 2010 title, yet was fired 2 years later. Gus Malzahn was run out of town even after his eighth winning season. Harsin was fired on Halloween of his second season.
And now Freeze, who got the mother of all second chances following his well-publicized flameout at Ole Miss by embarking on a 4-year second-chance tour at Liberty that caught Auburn’s eye in the wake of Harsin’s dismissal.
Freeze turned in a 6-7 season in 2023 and a 5-7 mark in 2024 to preheat his office chair entering 2025 – but felt like he had wind in his sails by picking up transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold after Arnold left Oklahoma. Arnold was supposed to be the secret sauce to unlock Freeze’s offensive bona fides, but instead ended up being so ineffective that Freeze started Ashton Daniels against Kentucky.
Beset with the slow burn of offensive malaise and running out of officiating crews to complain about, it all came to a head with a fizzle of an outing against the Wildcats – who had lost 19 of their previous 20 games against Auburn before Saturday yet dealt the Tigers a 5th loss in 8 games so far in 2025. Auburn’s offense gave up 7 sacks, mustered just 241 yards and generated only 3 points at home against a Kentucky team that notched its first SEC victory of the season.
And Freeze? He is now 15-19 overall on the Plains and just 6-16 in the SEC. He got booed off the field after yet another wet blanket of a performance in a season that is quickly dissolving into the same irrelevance that the past 4 losing seasons have.
The coach sat there minutes later, looking for words to explain away yet another loss. Having already half-pleadingly asked his athletic director for a vote of confidence in a press conference 2 weeks ago, the coach now requested the same from the very fans that told him exactly how they felt as he left their presence.
“I wish I could ask for patience, but that’s not something that people want to give in this day and time, and I understand that,” Freeze finally said.
“I just think we’re so dang close.”
Nope. Sorry. The only thing Freeze is close to anymore is the end. In fact, don’t be surprised if it is finally here.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
