Back in the saddle
Freeze returns to the SEC with Auburn
Fourth in a series previewing SEC football teams.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Auburn keeps hiring former Arkansas State University football coaches.
Hugh Freeze is the third consecutive Tigers coach who previously was at ASU along with Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin.
After Freeze led the Red Wolves to a 10-2 record in 2011 in his only season at ASU, he left for Ole Miss and Malzahn replaced him.
Malzahn led ASU to a 9-3 record in 2012, then left to become the coach at Auburn, where he previously was the Tigers’ offensive coordinator.
Harsin went 7-5 with the Red Wolves in 2013, then left for Boise State, his alma mater where he coached from 201421 and had 69-19 record.
Auburn’s hiring of Harsin seemed an odd fit considering he had no previous SEC experience, and he was fired after 21 games with a 9-12 record with assistant Carnell “Cadillac” Williams filling in as interim coach.
Now Freeze, 53, again is an SEC coach and looking to engineer the same kind of turnaround at Auburn as he did at Ole Miss.
“It’s good to be back,” Freeze said earlier this week in his first appearance at SEC football media days since 2017.
The Rebels were 6-18 under Houston Nutt — the former University of Arkansas coach and player — in 2010-11 prior to Freeze’s hiring.
Freeze had a 39-25 record in five seasons at Ole Miss, including 9-4 in 2014 and 10-3 in 2015 with appearances in the Peach Bowl and Sugar Bowl.
But off-the-field issues resulted in Freeze’s forced resignation at Ole Miss shortly before the start of the 2017 season.
After the 2015 season, the NCAA charged Ole Miss with numerous recruiting violations that ultimately led to sanctions that included a twoyear postseason ban.
Then before the 2017 season, it was discovered Freeze had used a university-issued cell phone to make calls to an escort service.
Freeze didn’t dodge the question when he was asked at media days if he expected to get a second chance in the SEC after the way things ended for him at Ole Miss.
“When the ending at Ole Miss occurred, it was hard to truthfully process, ‘Would you ever get that opportunity again?’ ” Freeze said. “So I would have to say at that point, no.”
Freeze’s outlook changed when he got the job at Liberty University in 2019 and went 34-15 in four seasons, including victories over Syracuse and Virginia Tech in 2020 and over BYU and Arkansas last season.
“Did the thought start creeping into your mind that certain opportunities might present themselves again?” Freeze said. “Yes, at that point. But not prior to that point did they enter my mind.”
Auburn now has a coach who has proven he can win in the SEC, including a 2-3 record against Alabama when he was at Ole Miss.
“I think experience in the SEC is always a positive,” Auburn senior tight end Luke Deal said. “We were sitting there trying to figure out, ‘OK, who’s going to be our coach?’
“We’re much more assured now knowing who we have here, knowing what Coach Freeze is about. He’s been in the SEC and he’s beaten teams that we need to beat. He’s beaten Alabama, and that’s a big deal.
“I’ve bought into what he’s saying. Our team’s bought into what he’s saying.”
Freeze and his staff added 42 newcomers, including senior linebacker Elijah McAllister, a graduate transfer from Vanderbilt.
“Coach Freeze is an amazing man,” McAllister said. “You know his track record with winning. He’s going to make us a force to be reckoned with.”
Freeze said he’s excited and thankful about coaching in the SEC again, but he’s not sure what to expect in his first season at Auburn.
“We’ve got a lot of questions about exactly how we’re going to be, and truthfully I don’t know all the answers to that yet,” Freeze said. “This is a strange feeling. … I’ve never experienced going into fall camp and having so many unknowns in my mind.”
Alabama and Georgia — Auburn’s two biggest rivals — have combined to win eight of the past 15 national championships, with the Crimson Tide claiming six between 2008 and 2020 and the Bulldogs the past two.
Asked how close Auburn might be to closing the gap on Alabama and Georgia, Freeze said he wanted to choose his words carefully.
“I love our team,” Freeze said. “They’re my team. They’re Auburn’s team. We’re going to coach the heck out of them.
“Does our roster from top to bottom look like Alabama’s, Georgia’s, LSU’s, Florida’s, Texas A&M’s, Ole Miss’? I don’t know yet.
“Do I think we’ve improved Auburn with the additions that we’ve had since I’ve been there? Yes. Does that mean we’ve close the gap at all? I have no clue.
“I do know we improved Auburn, and I hope that means that we somehow close the gap enough to [where] if we have a good game plan, to be in some of those games in the fourth quarter and have maybe a shot to pull an upset.”
Freeze’s Rebels twice upset Alabama, beating the No. 3 Crimson Tide 23-17 at home in 2014 and winning a shootout 43-37 over the No. 2 Tide on the road in 2015.
“I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for Hugh Freeze,” Alabama Coach Nick Saban said. “He’s good friend.
“I thought he did a great job at Ole Miss. He obviously did a really good job at Liberty, and I’m sure he’ll do a very good job at Auburn.
“I think his history as a coach sort of speaks for itself. He’s a good recruiter. They had really good players at Ole Miss when he was there, and I’m sure they will do the same thing in his current position.”
Among the newcomers Freeze recruited to Auburn is junior quarterback Payton Thorne, a transfer from Michigan State, where he was 16-10 as a starter and passed for 49 touchdowns and 6,499 yards.
Thorne will compete for the starting job with sophomore Robby Ashford, who started eight games for Auburn last season and passed for 1,613 yards and rushed for 709.
“Quarterback-wise, that’s going to be a challenge for us … but I’m very truthfully a lot more optimistic than most people are,” Freeze said. “I think we’ve got a good room.
“But I’m an optimist. We’ve been able to do things with quarterbacks everywhere we’ve been and produce good enough results to win. I thought spring practice we got better there. Obviously we want to create competition in that room. That’s why we brought in Payton, who’s had great experiences. I think what he adds to that room right now is incredible leadership.”
Thorne transferred in May after spring practice.
“Really good person, really good leader,” Deal said. “I think a lot of the guys trust him, and that’s the main thing whenever you come in and you’re a new guy on a team.
“He’s such a savvy guy. He’s a veteran quarterback, and you can tell. He’s got the swagger to him.”
Auburn won the 2010 national championship led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Cam Newton and got back to the title game in 2013 in Malzahn’s first season when the Tigers lost to Florida State.
“Auburn traditionally wins a lot of games and can get high-level recruits, and I think Coach Freeze is in the perfect position to be successful here,” McAllister said. “It’s going to start with the foundation here in Year One.
“I think he can definitely do it as he’s done it before in the past.”
Freeze is turning over the play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery — Tulsa’s coach the previous eight seasons — so he can focus on the total program, including the need to unite the fan base.
“I did sense coming in that the faith in the whole family of Auburn football was fractured somewhat,” Freeze said. “I think that’s where I had to start, in trying to repair that.”
Freeze said he sees Auburn as being in the upper echelon of the SEC on a consistent basis.
“We have the facilities. We have the support,” Freeze said. “You’re in an area that football is important, and you’re in an area that you can recruit to.
“I do think that the ’24 and ’25 recruiting cycle will tell a large portion of the story of my tenure here. Maybe ’26 we might get three cycles, but we’ve got to start closing the gap on the elite programs in this conference.”
There was no transfer portal when Freeze coached at Ole Miss.
“Obviously the transfer portal world adds another dynamic to it,” Freeze said. “How good you are at holding on to the ones you do have in your room and then attracting ones that can go in and fill some holes for you.
“Hopefully we can be very good at that, at creating a culture where our kids want to be at Auburn and want to stay at Auburn. Look, if you’re in the upper half of this conference, you get a break here or there, you’re in the playoffs. Then you’ve got a real chance. That’s where I see Auburn.”