Hugh Freeze’s golf obsession helped get him fired

The Auburn Tigers fired Hugh Freeze as head coach on Sunday after a series of mediocre on-field results. However, some of his off-field habits were just as frustrating to the school.

Freeze had a habit of golfing regularly, which was public knowledge. However, according to John Talty of CBS Sports, even those around the program were shocked by how often Freeze was on the golf course. At times, there was a feeling that Freeze prioritized his golf game ahead of his actual job as coach.

One Auburn booster even told Talty that there was one instance on a Friday before a home game this season where Freeze went to the course just to watch other people play golf.

“Freeze just came out to the golf course without clubs to watch guys play golf,” the booster claimed.

The golf fixation played into a perception around the program that Freeze had lost the drive that previously made him successful at both Ole Miss and Liberty. That translated into poor results, as Freeze went just 15-19 during his Auburn tenure.

The story goes into many of Freeze’s other issues, including a reluctance to dip into the transfer program and struggles keeping up with the speed of modern recruiting. Overall, Freeze is painted as someone who was unprepared to deal with the modern college football landscape and paid for it with poor results, including a 1-5 mark in SEC play this season before he was ultimately fired.

Freeze’s penchant for golfing became a story this past offseason, but he dismissed it as an issue and claimed it did not take any of his attention away from coaching or recruiting. Whether that is true or not, it created a pretty negative perception that only got worse as the coach struggled to win games.