Paul Finebaum isn’t a fan of what’s happening on The Plains.
The ESPN college football analyst took 2-5 Auburn and head coach Hugh Freeze to task during his weekly Monday morning appearance on the “McElroy & Cubelic In The Morning” show. While Kalen DeBoer and Alabama have their own problems right now, that other SEC school in the state has lost 4 in a row and appears to be going nowhere in 2024, says Finebaum.
“I hate to qualify my answer because recruiting has been so good, but I have seen nothing from Hugh Freeze on the actual football field that makes me believe he will make it as the Auburn coach,” said Finebaum. “I am amazed at some of the decisions that I see, some of the things that are coming from him, some of the things that are coming from his mouth before and after games. I know that may sound harsh, but I’m just being real.”
Finebaum wonders if the pure idea of hiring Freeze didn’t match the reality of having Freeze as the head coach.
“I wonder if Auburn really wasn’t sold a bill of goods on (Freeze),” Finebaum said. “If you take away those wins against Nick Saban, what exactly has Hugh Freeze accomplished as a football coach? I know what his record was at Liberty, and I really don’t care. I’m looking at Ole Miss and Auburn, and he has been a failure as the Auburn head coach in my mind. And I know Bryan Harsin was fired at this point two years ago with a better record by a game or two, but that’s not really telling the story. … On the football field, which is where you are ultimately judged, I’m not liking anything I’m seeing.”
Freeze and Auburn will try to snap that losing streak on Saturday at Kentucky, with kickoff at 7:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
