Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast Auburn Emergency Show: Hugh Freeze Finally Frozen Out
Hugh Freeze is out at Auburn and probably done forever as a top-level college football coach. Richard and Alex do a postmortem on his Auburn tenure and his broader career, then discuss what Auburn could and should do next:
* The brief good times Freeze had at Ole Miss, and how we’d remember him if not for the recruiting class that later got him into trouble
* A weird dude whose firing wasn’t weird at all
* Failures of QB development and Freeze blowing what turned out to be his only chance to do the thing Auburn dreamed he could do: Beat Nick Saban
* A masterclass in ineffective communication by a head coach
* Auburn’s infamous donor/administration alignment, currently better than several other SEC programs in the coaching market
* Jon Sumrall, the name that will be on everyone’s lips in this search
* How Lane Kiffin’s decision-making affects Auburn’s options
* Why it’s time to just hire a normal football coach, please
* Why Freeze’s firing feels like a party for college football fans of all different ideological persuasions
Producer: Anthony Vito
Additional reading and listening
* Steven Godfrey’s 2023 episode about his dealings with Freeze
* Jason Kirk on Freeze: “Rub some church on it”