Hugh Freeze Survives at Auburn While Other Coaches Get the Axe

AUBURN, Ala.- Another round of coach firings happened on Sunday afternoon, and it appears that Auburn Football head coach Hugh Freeze will have at least another week in the orange and blue. 

Every Sunday, the Auburn Athletic Department sends out a weekly media schedule, which tells when Freeze and select players are available for questions from the media, and Freeze’s name is still attached to it. Freeze is scheduled to have his weekly press conference on Monday at 1:30 p.m. CDT.

On Sunday afternoon, it was announced that the Florida Gators fired Billy Napier, even after a win against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. In Napier’s time in Gainesville, he accumulated a 22-23 overall record as the Gators head football coach. 

Last week, Penn State’s James Franklin was fired after the Nittany Lions lost to Northwestern. Franklin’s situation was interestin. He is coming off of leading Penn State to the College Football Playoff. College Gameday’s Nick Saban also chimed in on this. 

“You made the statement, it’s not up to you to decide what’s fair or unfair when Rece asked you that question? I’m going to answer it. It’s unfair as hell. You go to the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, get into the Final Four, come in ranked (No.3) this year, an expectation that you created by what you accomplished at Penn State,” Saban said to Franklin on Saturday morning. 

Although the firing at Penn State may or may not be fair, there is no doubt that Franklin made the Nittany Lions national contenders, something that Auburn has not been able to do since the 2017 season when they played in the SEC Championship. 

The circumstances surrounding Penn State and Auburn are significantly different, but Auburn fans wish they were firing a coach because he can’t get past the semifinals of the College Football Playoffs.

Instead, Auburn has to stick with a coach that is 1-12 against ranked teams and has lost four games in a row, making his career record at Auburn 14-18. Franklin’s firing happened because of a standard that he created. For Freeze, the Auburn standard is high, and not because he made it that way. 

The Auburn standard is high due to Auburn winning national championships and constantly competing for SEC Championships over decades and decades of winning.  

However, Freeze has not fully escaped losing his job this week. When former Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin was fired, it was done so on a Monday afternoon. Tiger fans will have to wait and see if Freeze has fully escaped this week with his job intact. 

Auburn is set to travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks this Saturday. Arkansas also fired Sam Pittman earlier this season, so Arkansas will still be coaching with an interim head coach.

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