2025 GAME 7 REVIEW: Another One Bites The Dust

Missouri 23  Auburn 17.  The Hugh Freeze era at Auburn is over.  He might get to coach a few more games but he will not be the coach at Auburn next year.  He might not be the coach tomorrow or next week but I doubt it because I think it would be better for Auburn to dismiss him today which means that is what will not happen.  Unfortunately as I said last week I have as much confidence in our ex-Mississippi State baseball coach athletic director as I do in Hugh Freeze.  What is my evidence to back up that opinion?  One name...  Mike Leach.  I do not mean any disrespect to Leach or want to tarnish his memory but his offense was never going to work in the SEC and that was proven.  I have serious reservations about anybody who would have hired him to lead an SEC program.

Unfortunately that is the guy tasked with hiring yet another head football coach at Auburn.  I can give you a preview of what I am going to say when Auburn does hire another football coach...  I am going to write that I assume he is going to be another terrible coach no matter how good he looks at the moment till he proves otherwise.  I have written nauseatingly bad posts here at STR on both Harsin and Freeze when they were first hired.  They are positive and optimistic and were completely wrong.  I am not going to write another one of those I can tell you that.  The early returns from Auburn boards are definitely inconclusive.  There are champions for every realistic and unrealistic candidate.  I will not waste time arguing the merits of so many "possible" coaches. 

The bottom line is Auburn better hire a good one or the Tiger football program will finish a complete decade down and out.  The secondary concern is mitigating the damage of changing coaches, i.e. losing every good player you have.  That is why, in my opinion, I would fire Hugh Freeze today and make defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin head coach to rally the troops and get a few wins which would produce some positivity around the program.  The current negativity that completely envelopes the program will only grow thicker as the losses pile up under Freeze.  I have heard the opinion that you do not want to do this because then you have to hire Durkin if he wins a few games.  I disagree with that argument and think getting a few wins is more important.  

Let me say that again, I think getting a few wins in this lost season is more important than letting Hugh Freeze play out the string while the powers-that-be "work behind the scenes".  I think you need decisive action right now and people need to see how good this team can be with Freeze out of the picture.  I do think Auburn would win a few with him simply gone.  Auburn invents ways to lose under his leadership and last night was actually the worst so far.  Auburn was far better than Missouri and had the game basically won.  The game actually came down to one play.  ONE PLAY.  Yes we can talk about dropped passes, missed field goals, and more penalties but once again like last week it really came down to ONE PLAY.  That one play summed up why Hugh Freeze is a failure at Auburn.

Auburn was up 14-10 and had the ball with eleven minutes left in the fourth quarter and it was third down at the ONE YARD LINE.  It was just like last week, one yard from victory except this time it was a lot later in the game so this really would seal the win.  You are Hugh Freeze.  You are hanging on at Auburn by your very fingertips.  Your career hangs in the balance.  The chance to bring your team and the fans a big win is there for the taking.  You could sense it.  IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS.  I am calling a time out, yes wasting a time out because the game can be won right here.  I am gathering the entire offense around me and I am challenging them with everything I have got to GET THAT YARD.  GET THE WIN.  RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW.  EVERYTHING YOU HAVE GOT.

Instead he just meekly lined up in the shotgun and handed the ball off to Jeremiah Cobb who took a four yard loss and Auburn had to settle for a field goal which gave Missouri the chance to tie the game late and send it into overtime where they won it.  The game should have been won at this point and that is where it all really ended for Hugh Freeze.  He is a soft finesse coach and that is what makes him a loser.  This is the second week in a row he has lost a game because of this.  I pointed out Auburn had it second and goal at the two yard line against Georgia last week before the fumble drive.  However Auburn took a four yard loss there and settled for a field goal too.  I believe these two goal line plays are the biggest reasons Auburn has lost the last two games and the main reasons Hugh Freeze should be fired immediately.