Auburn Football: ESPN tabs Hugh Freeze as front-runner for next Tigers head coach

A college football insider for ESPN, Adam Rittenberg, has tabbed a front-runner for the open Auburn football head coach position. It’s Hugh Freeze, the former Ole Miss head coach and current Liberty head coach.

“Although Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin is viewed as the front-runner for the Auburn job, Freeze might be the better fit for the long run,” Adam Rittenberg wrote.

There are a few different reasons why Freeze is a strong candidate for the Auburn job. It starts with his personal history in the SEC West. He was incredibly successful at Ole Miss, with multiple wins over Nick Saban and Alabama. That always matters on the Plains. On top of that, he would recruit and use NIL in ways that Bryan Harsin wasn’t able or willing to do.

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“Freeze embraces the recruiting piece and would use Auburn’s NIL program to his advantage. He has a known track record of producing exciting and effective offenses, first at Ole Miss and now at Liberty,” Rittenberg continued.

The problem with hiring Hugh Freeze for any Power 5 job is that he comes with a ton of baggage. Otherwise, Freeze would have had a P5 job already, because he is a good recruiter and on-field coach. He had to resign from Ole Miss in disgrace. This came due to things that happened off the field.

During Hugh Freeze’s time at Ole Miss, the school was also found to have 15 Level I violations for recruiting issues. This wasn’t the reason that he resigned. However, it has hung over his head since then.

Hugh Freeze recently received a contract extension from Liberty. The extension goes until 2030 and is worth $5 million annually. That makes him by far the highest-paid C-USA head coach as Liberty invests in football.

“He has the personality to connect with Auburn fans and possibly bring together the power brokers around the program,” Rittenberg explained. “His new contract at Liberty likely wouldn’t prevent a move to Auburn.”

Hugh Freeze said his contract extension is ‘humbling’

After receiving his contract extension, Hugh Freeze came out and thanked the Liberty community and described the contract as “humbling.”

“I don’t know what day that came out, but I assumed we’d already talked about it because the social media world’s already covered it,” Freeze said.

“(Director of athletics) Ian (McCaw) has been incredible to me here, along with Dr. (Jerry) Prevo and the Board of Trustees. Every single year I’ve been here I’ve never had to go to him to ask for anything. He always comes to me. It’s quite humbling, truthfully.”