Paul Finebaum torches Hugh Freeze era at Auburn: ‘Complete and total failure’
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Auburn football fans have been clamoring for Hugh Freeze’s job for much of the 2025 season. They got their wish on Sunday when the Tigers fired him after a disheartening 10-3 home loss to Kentucky.
Freeze finished 15-19 (6-16 SEC) in nearly 3 full seasons at Auburn. He won 3 SEC games his first year, but went 3-11 over his last 14 conference games. Inconsistent offensive performances — and questionable decisions of all kinds on that side of the ball — spelled his doom.
Paul Finebaum, speaking on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, doesn’t think Freeze did worse than his predecessor, but still flopped in the gig.
“The only positive thing I could say is that it was better than Bryan Harsin, but it was still a complete and total failure. There’s no getting around that,” Finebaum said. “He does not seem, to me, to be the same coach that I remember at Ole Miss. And even at Liberty. Something was missing. He just didn’t seem to have that one molecule necessary that could get him over the top.”
Finebaum believes Auburn’s administration is not to blame for Freeze’s shortcomings. He thinks Freeze received the necessary assistance to succeed, but wasn’t able to find the right recipe. If that’s the case, the Tigers need only to find the right chef in this coaching cycle to turn their program’s tide.
Auburn heads to Vanderbilt in Week 11.
