The reason for this post is to state my opinions on this hire but let me take a step back first on the subject of Auburn's head football coach. I cannot say how refreshing in one way the last four weeks have been. I actually like Carnell Williams and man I have realized that I have not felt that way very often about Auburn's head football coach. I loved Pat Dye even though he still did his fair share of dumb things and at the end I loved him more. Terry Bowden was what Auburn needed his first two years, Coach Dye would not have gone undefeated in 1993. Unfortunately Bowden fell apart and is deservedly ostracized from Auburn. I will say though that the 1993 team might be my favorite team ever so he has that one little blip in time like Gene Chizik in 2010. Chizik was a terrible hire but he did a great job in 2010 and like Bowden fell apart after that. I could not stand either of them at the end.
Tommy Tuberville was a good hire and did a lot of good things including leading arguably Auburn's greatest team in 2004 plus beating Bama six times in a row. Unfortunately he also did a lot of bad things like "Black Saturday" in 2001, getting blown out many times by lesser teams like Arkansas, and squandering one of the most talented teams in Auburn history in 2003 plus going out so badly hiring Tony Franklin and giving up on recruiting. I think everyone has some good memories of Tuberville but he was certainly not great. Malzahn was the same except less. Auburn had one great season but Malzahn blew the biggest game in it and only won about three more really big games in the seven years after that. I started disliking Malzahn in 2014 as written in this blog as it was apparent even then he could not develop a decent passing offense. It did not take long to start hating Bryan Harsin.
I believe many others share my feelings on these coaches and not coincidentally these feelings appear spot on when grading these coaches as recruiters. Pat Dye was a great recruiter. Terry Bowden and Bryan Harsin ended their careers literally hated by nearly every high school coach in the state. Tommy Tuberville was a decent recruiter but continually got complacent. Gene Chizik was just not respected by anybody and Gus Malzahn was just not a people person and thus not a good recruiter. Auburn has paid tens of millions of dollars to these coaches and in the case of Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin gotten little to NO RETURN for their investment in recruiting. These two coaches and their TERRIBLE RECRUITING is what has led Auburn to its current disastrous state highlighted in the Iron Bowl this past weekend.
Auburn is in big trouble as I wrote in my previous post and in many before that. The Auburn Nation is not only tired of overpaid unlikable head coaches, all of us are even more tired of the bad recruiting and thus the bad football that follows. Auburn was close in 2020 but now in 2022 the only thing that can be said is ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Auburn is either going to have accept their place down beside Vanderbilt or is going to have to FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN RECRUIT. The program is in such bad shape that the next coach must also, in addition to being a very good recruiter, be competent enough to turn around a program this large. It is a herculean task that is not for the faint of heart and as we found out during this search, it is a task that many coaches did not want to take on.
Auburn's initial top target Lane Kiffin felt that way. Auburn obviously targeted Kiffin from the start and it looked like he was going to take the job but he bailed at the last minute. Others will disagree but I think that Kiffin not working out was a good thing. I have made my feelings known about Kiffin on this blog many times. I have called him the most overrated coach I have ever seen and I flat out do not like him. However I will say I would have taken him over some of the other names thrown out, names like James Franklin or Sonny Dykes. I also was against hiring a first time head coach like Carnell Williams, Brian Johnson, or Jeff Grimes or one with very little experience like Deion. I know that sometimes hiring an assistant is the right thing like Kirby Smart at Georgia but I think the current situation at Auburn is too much for a rookie or lesser experienced head coach right now.
There are exceptions, in fact my top choice that I threw out in this blog a month ago, Dell McGee, would have been a first time head coach. However he was a state championship winning head coach at the top level of high school football in Georgia along with serving on Kirby Smart's staff at Georgia for six years as either assistant head coach or as a coordinator along with being a national recruiter of the year award winner. Add to those facts that he also played at Auburn during tough and great times from 1992-95 and I think you get a very good candidate even though he had never head coached on the college level. McGee was the guy I wanted. My second choice would have been Dave Aranda, the current head coach at Baylor. He has done a great job at Baylor and did a great job as a coordinator for LSU. Those were my top two picks but for whatever reason on whichever side they were not serious candidates.
My third choice was Freeze and by saying that I am contradicting myself and talking out of both sides of my mouth. I have said on this blog multiple times that while I believe fully in forgiveness for Freeze, I did not believe he should ever run a big time program again. I said it and I believed it. I still do and though this may make me look even worse I guess I see this as an exception I never thought about. I do not think Freeze would have gotten another chance at any other top program around the country. I think Freeze's personality, experience, and redemption story uniquely fitted this one job at this one time. I am not sure when it clicked with me but it did once I looked at him seriously and what he brought to the table. He brings baggage and that will continue to hurt but Freeze also brings so many things that Auburn desperately needs and has needed for a long time.
I also think as he said at his press conference that he has earned this second chance. I am officially giving it to him. As soon as I kind of went through this and it was evident that my top two guys were not serious candidates I was all in on Freeze. However I did not believe that Auburn and especially president Chris Roberts and athletic director John Cohen would brave the backlash to hire him though. As soon as Freeze was reported to be the next guy up after Kiffin was officially declared out this past weekend that backlash started. The forums on all the Auburn sites were all filled with battles between those for and against Freeze. It sounded like an email campaign was started against Freeze to get the Auburn administration to back down and from some reports it appeared that it was working. This was when I lost hope because I just did not see another candidate on their lists that I thought could get the job done.
Frankly I was shocked when the news finally broke this past Monday that Auburn was going to hire Freeze. I have to admit though I was excited and happy to hear it. I was even more excited after the official press conference and hearing Freeze's talk about all of these different issues. For those still against Freeze I certainly cannot tell you that you are wrong and you still might be giving the rest of us a big "I told you so" in the future. I hope not but concede that this hire is a risk. I think any hire has a certain amount of risk but this one obviously includes bad stuff that other candidates would not have had to deal with. Also there is a third group, subtilty different, that are for second chances but do not believe Hugh Freeze is a good enough coach to be worth giving him that second chance. I think that is the audience many of my next paragraphs are really aimed toward, i.e. why I think Freeze is the right coach if you will consider him.
However you have to start with what he has done to address the moral issues at hand, i.e. calling an escort service for whatever reason. Again you say it and the knee jerk reaction is NO WAY, at least mine is. However if you step back take a break and say OK what has he done to address this so I should even listen to this guy you do see work put in. First, Freeze took two years off and repaired his relationship with his family. The era of wives "standing by their man" no matter what are gone. I think it is a big deal that his wife is still with him and outspoken in her support of him along with his three daughters. There have been plenty of public figures that made lesser mistakes that were abandoned by their family or at least members of it. Again I think this does say a lot. Next, Freeze talked about how he implemented an accountability plan with his family and with Liberty when he came back to coaching.
It appears that plan has worked other than one poor choice to send a direct message to a plantiff in a legal case against Liberty that involved handling of sexual assault cases and other issues pertaining to female athletes. The case had nothing to do with Freeze but he was trying to defend the athletic director. I understand people who will not budge off the mistakes made at Ole Miss, I understand that, however I am a little tired of people and the press trying to make this more than it is. He should not have sent this message but there is no wrong doing here that I see. However it does show poor judgement but you also have to listen to all the people who are vouching for the change in Freeze over the last six years and there are a lot of them. This is a tough call but I am a sucker for redemption stories and know how much grace I have received in this life after many mistakes, and with that in mind I am now for giving Freeze this chance.
We then come to WHY??? WHY are we even having this conversation??? Surely Auburn can find another coach that can get the job done without all this baggage even if you believe in second chances??? All I can say to this question is there might be but at this EXACT time and place Freeze appears to be the best candidate for the job. Here is why I say that... once you allow Freeze to become a candidate you have to go to the requirements of the job with the first being RECRUITING. I think right now unbiasedly you have to consider Lane Kiffin the best recruiter available but if he is out I think the next best recruiter is far and away Freeze. I do agree that Deion Sanders might have the most potential to be that best recruiter but Deion would still have to prove that and I do not think Auburn could gamble on that.
The problem with Sanders is while the force of his personality and his resume is enormous, recruiting in SEC requires an unbelievably incredible amount of work either directly recruiting or managing an entire recruiting enterprise. You just do not know if Sanders is really willing to put that amount of work in for Auburn. He is rich, successful, and the best ever at his position... why would he at this point in his life want to go through the grind of recruiting? It is why pretty much no great player is a great coach in any sport. It is also why I did not think Sanders was a good fit at Auburn. The best at recruiting are usually lesser players who have then given their life to coaching. They are grinders who are earning their hall of fame nominations through years of coaching. Nick $aban is the greatest example along with Kirby Smart, Dabo Swinney, etc...
The rest of the candidates had even more questions regarding their recruiting ability. Hugh Freeze was the only one that had already done it successfully at an SEC school and one that is harder to recruit to than Auburn. This is where we get to his NCAA violations at Ole Miss. I understand pausing for the other issues, I could not care less about all of his NCAA violations. I have said it in this blog and many other times the only transgression by Freeze in this situation was beating Bama twice in a row while recruiting well. He made himself a threat and he had to be dealt with. His program definitely committed the violations but I contend there was nothing Ole Miss did that Bama has not done thousands of times, they are just way better at it and the NCAA steers clear of Bama now. Bama made sure the NCAA got all the info on Freeze and Ole Miss.
The situation was then taken care of by the NCAA. Freeze was fired and Ole Miss has not come close to being a threat to Bama since (Lane Kiffin still has never beaten Bama). The next question I get when I point this out is that Gus Malzahn beat Bama more, what did they do to him? I know this is off the subject but Bama took care of Malzahn too. They could not use the NCAA because Gus was squeaky clean and by the way this NCAA stuff might be a concern with Freeze if not for NIL which has made recruiting the wild wild west. Back to Gus, what Bama did to take care of the Auburn threat is a constant recruiting message that Gus Malzahn cannot prepare any offensive position for the NFL especially offensive tackles. They got direct quotes from NFL scouts and coaches saying exactly this. I am not saying there is not some truth to that but Bama magnified the message and got it out to every recruit.
I have talked in person to an NFL offensive coordinator about one of Auburn's really good players and he did say this. Other schools like Georgia also took up the this message and that along with the fact that Malzahn was not a strong recruiter anyway is still the main reason why Auburn is so bad right now. You might say wow that is a lot of conjecture and opinions, where is the proof? The proof is in the fact that Auburn has not been able to recruit ONE true offensive tackle from high school in SIX YEARS. In that time Auburn has played guards, mediocre to bad transfers, and players that might have played tackle in high school but did not have the body type or skills to be a real SEC offensive tackle. The almost complete failure of Auburn offensive tackle Greg Robinson (inherited by Malzahn in 2013) in the NFL after being drafted second in 2014 was held high by every school recruiting against Auburn as exhibit #1 that Auburn could not develop offensive tackles.
Auburn then shot itself in the foot by hiring an even worse recruiter in Bryan Harsin to follow Gus Malzahn. That brings us to right now and Hugh Freeze. Auburn HAS TO have a good recruiter. Auburn HAS TO have a people person who is good in the living room. With NIL, Auburn NEEDS somebody that can sell and close the deal. Hugh Freeze was first the recruiting coordinator at Ole Miss and he did so well that a year after he left to head coach Arkansas State they brought him back as head coach. He took over for Houston Nutt who had gone 1-15 in the SEC in his last two years at Ole Miss. The program was near dead. Hugh Freeze immediately turned it around and took Ole Miss to four straight bowls including their best season and highest bowl appearance since the Johnny Vaught days long ago. People like to skip over what Freeze did at Ole Miss due to the way it ended but the results bear a closer look.
Again, Ole Miss went 4-8 and 1-7 in the SEC in 2010 and then 2-12 and 0-8 in the SEC in 2011 under Houston Nutt. Freeze took over in 2012 and immediately led Ole Miss to a 6-6 season and a bowl win over Pittsburg. The Rebels improved to 7-5 in Freeze's second season and then again got another bowl win. The program kept rising in Freeze's third season to 9-3 and getting to the Peach Bowl (he also beat Boise State who was in Bryan Harsin's first season lol). The pinnacle of Freeze's success at Ole Miss was his fourth season in 2015 where they won 10 games including a win in their first Sugar Bowl since 1969. Ole Miss also beat Bama and Nick $aban in consecutive seasons in 2014-15, making Freeze I believe the only coach to beat $aban at Bama in consecutive seasons. The bottom fell out the next season of course but that story is well documented. It was a terrible end but Freeze's recruiting and coaching effort those four rising years though was incredible.
After he made those monstrous mistakes and took those two years off he was given a second chance at Liberty University, a small private Christian school in Virginia. I do not think I had ever heard of Liberty before that but they have been around for awhile. They started their football program in 1973 at the NAIA level. They moved up to Division II during the 80s and then moved up to Division 1-AA which is now the FCS subdivision in 1988 and they stayed there till 2017. They only had three seasons with two or less losses during all that time. However they moved up to the big leagues in FBS in 2018 and hired Hugh Freeze in 2019. They had never been to a bowl game before Freeze. He has taken them currently to three straight, winning all three, and if they make it to another one this season then it will be four straight. I have to tell you, if you look closely at Freeze's work at Liberty it is pretty dang impressive.
Liberty has gone 8-5, 10-1 (their greatest season), 8-5, and now 8-4 this past season. During this time Liberty (again we are talking Liberty not Appalachian State or more well known former FCS members) beat Syracuse, Southern Miss, Virginia Tech, Troy, UAB, BYU, and his biggest win this season AT Arkansas. That is not a list of football powerhouses but again we are talking about LIBERTY!!! I think in all this you not only see the ability to recruit talent but the ability to coach it as well. I remember in 2014 as it became obvious that Auburn coach Gus Malzahn could not integrate a nominal passing game into his offense how much I liked what Freeze did on offense with Ole Miss. Freeze used basically the same formations and principles as Malzahn EXCEPT he was able to also have a good passing game. I said at the time that Malzahn should be doing it the way Freeze was doing it.
I think the results speak for themselves but lets look at one case study that includes Auburn about Hugh Freeze's coaching. The case study in question is quarterback Malik Willis. I have actually heard people give Freeze less credit since he had Willis during his best season at Liberty (???). Here is a reminder that Malik Willis was considered the same or worse than David Ashford, Auburn's current quarterback. Malik Willis was considered just a runner and NOBODY (including me) thought he was a good quarterback!!! He sat behind Jarrett Stidham for two years at Auburn and then transferred to Liberty in 2019 when Bo Nix came in and was given the job as a true freshman over Willis. In fact Malzahn thought so little of Willis that Joey Gatewood (who was a complete flop) was also promoted over him. Everyone at Auburn did not care a bit when he transferred.
Willis sat out the season in 2019 due to the transfer rules at the time and faded from everyone's memory. He then, coached by Hugh Freeze, became one of the best quarterbacks in college football the next two years. Willis completed over 60% of his passes for over 5000 yards and almost 50 touchdowns while ALSO running for close to 2000 yards and 27 touchdowns. Liberty's only loss in 2020 was to an eight win N.C. State team by one point while they beat Syracuse, Southern Miss, and Virginia Tech in a three game stretch and they beat a previously undefeated Coastal Carolina team in their bowl game. Willis was taken in the third round of the last NFL draft and is currently the backup in Tennessee. I think a lot of Bo Nix, much more than many Auburn fans, but I do not think he will be drafted that high or be an NFL backup next season.
OK so that covers recruiting and coaching and at this point you have be pretty amazed at the job Hugh Freeze did at both Ole Miss and Liberty not to mention his ten win conference winning Arkansas State team the year before Ole Miss. The man still has his baggage but if you make that decision to make him a candidate I think you can clearly see why Auburn took him. Also if you just listen to the guy for a few minutes I think you see, as with so many people villainized in the press for various sins, that he is not Gollum from the "The Lord of the Rings" movies plotting his next evil act. He just appears like many before him to be a guy that made a big mistake looking for a second chance to keep doing what he loves and is good at. Yes I could be reading the man wrong and my conclusions here could be wrong but while I love a redemption story I have also become pretty cynical. I feel like Hugh Freeze is genuinely repentant and the right coach at the right time in the right place at Auburn.
I think the last thing that helps Freeze's cause is his southern folksy charm. I only use the term "southern" here as many times being a certain type of folksy is thought of as a positive attribute that is typically seen more in the south. It is not a requirement or anything to be from the south. The perfect example is Bruce Pearl who was born in Boston. However Bruce Pearl has that down-to-earth folksy charm and people love him. Again it is not a requirement but it really seems to help especially at Auburn. Bruce Pearl is the greatest basketball coach in Auburn history and he has it. The two football coaches that Auburn's football stadium and field are named after had it and were great with it. Finally the Auburn football program seems to need it now after a decade of the robotic Gus Malzahn and the myopic Bryan Harsin. I have never seen one coach alienate more different groups of people than Harsin. The hope here is Freeze can heal many of those relationships ESPECIALLY with high school coaches.
There is also one thing about the situation Freeze is in that could also be a help to Auburn. Big buyouts are killing motivation just as everyone has said since they started coming in. Coaches with big buyouts to an extent just do not care, if they fail they will still get generational wealth. Gus Malzahn received his huge new contract and buyout and then having a down year in 2018 and seeing his recruiting lagging he showed no extra effort at all. You could tell, he was going to do it at a certain pace and knew he wins either way. I now think that one of the reasons, maybe the main one, that Bryan Harsin took the Auburn job was the buyout. He had never seen that kind of money in his life. I think it also empowered him to frankly not work as hard, show no desperation, and not try to get along with people. In fact, once things turned bad I think he was just waiting to get fired to get his money.
I do not think at least to start Hugh Freeze will take this attitude. First, he knows he can earn a LOT more money by doing well. Next, he wants to prove himself after being "cast out" for so long and he knows this is his last chance at a big time college job. I think all of that adds up to a lot more motivation than we have seen the last six years at least. I also think Freeze actually likes Auburn. Freeze was also the candidate most willing to do some things that Auburn officials wanted. He obviously cost a LOT less than Kiffin but he also was willing and eager to keep Carnell Williams and make him a big part of his coaching staff. In fact Freeze smartly opened his press conference by giving Auburn fans the news that he had talked to Cadillac and made him is Associate Head Coach. I think that was very important and let me tell you Lane Kiffin was NOT keeping Cadillac. Some of the other candidates might have but it was not an issue with Freeze.
Well those are my thoughts on Hugh Freeze and why I think he ended up being the best candidate. Of course I was also fairly positive about Bryan Harsin after his first presser. However I really do feel better about Freeze than Harsin, Malzahn, or Chizik. I have a dream that Auburn will win an SEC championship in the next few years. I believe it will be the sweetest one ever at Auburn because of how tough the journey was to get there. In this dream the journey toward this championship starts with Carnell Williams taking over a month ago. The journey contines led by Hugh Freeze, Carnell, the rest of the coaching and support staff, the players now and then with of course the support of the entire Auburn family. It is just a dream but as Carnell Williams said in his first press conference...
"AUBURN IS WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE."
WAR EAGLE.
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