After latest awful loss, Auburn needs to part ways with Hugh Freeze

Hugh Freeze is supposed to be an offensive-minded head coach, but his Auburn Tigers, playing at home, only managed a field goal in a 10-3 loss to another woeful team, Kentucky, in Week 10.

That result gave the Wildcats their first Southeastern Conference win in the 2025 season, while Auburn fell to 4-5 overall and 1-5 in conference competition.

Kentucky also has a head coach on the hot seat in Mark Stoops, yet he managed to prevail against Freeze, the latest embarrassing loss for Auburn in a campaign where the Tigers raced out to a 3-0 start but have since gone a miserable 1-5.

Freeze surviving this season and coming back for another year is pretty much unfathomable. For Auburn to qualify for bowl eligibility, it needs two more wins.

The Tigers' remaining regular-season schedule is at ranked Vanderbilt, home against Mercer and then home versus Alabama. It's difficult to imagine Auburn beating either the Commodores or the Crimson Tide.

Hugh Freeze's job at Auburn is in serious peril

Freeze is in his third season with the Tigers. He has a 15–19 overall record and a sub-par 6-16 mark in the loaded SEC. Freeze has never won more than six games in a season at Auburn.

In 2025, Auburn is averaging just 22.33 points per game, which is No. 14 in the SEC. Even worse, the Tigers are No. 15 in the conference in total yards per contest, at 329.56. That won't cut it.

On3's Pete Nakos noted that Auburn administrators are discussing Freeze's future. Chris Hummer of 247Sports wrote: "There really isn't an argument to keep Freeze at this point."

According to USA Today, should Auburn fire Freeze, his buyout amounts to $15.44 million. That's a lot of money, but it's less than the buyouts of other head coaches who have already been fired this season, namely Brian Kelly at LSU ($53.3 million), James Franklin at Penn State ($48.67 million) and Billy Napier at Florida ($20.43 million).

Whether the Auburn brass would let go of Freeze before the end of the current campaign remains to be seen, but barring a three-game winning streak, it seems inevitable that he won't be the Tigers' head coach beyond 2025.