Hugh Freeze knows the challenge, stakes at Auburn

Hugh Freeze took the job at Auburn knowing the stakes of winning and winning big on The Plains.

The Bryan Harsin era was pretty much a disaster in the eyes of Auburn fans. Now with Freeze back in the SEC after a successful stint at Liberty, he better start winning right away.

Heck, Freeze even joked about the consequences of a slow rebuilding process compared to the fast track to winning.

“If we’re not in that top-10 range, they’ll probably be firing me in Year 4 or Year 5,” Freeze said with a half laugh, via ESPN. “But you know that coming in. … The administration, John Cohen has been awesome, President Roberts, I think everybody knows they’ve gotta give us a chance to get a couple top classes in here. If we don’t do that, and are able to still win it, it would be a miracle.”

Freeze went 34-15 in four seasons at Liberty and won three straight bowl games. He opted to take the Auburn job prior to the Boca Raton Bowl last season.

It was in stark contrast to his stint at Ole Miss over the course of five seasons. After NCAA penalties, Freeze ended with a 10-25 record. It was over numerous recruiting violations.

Eventually, it was discovered Freeze used an escort service and violated the morals clause of his contract.

Seemingly, the coach has been redeemed over the years. But he walks into a job that demands excellence and for the program to be on par with in-state rival Alabama.

Harsin went 6-7 in his first season after a 6-2 start and underwent many staff changes going into 2022. After a 3-5 start, it was pretty much the end of his coaching stint. He was fired with four games left.

Whether Harsin would’ve succeeded or not with more time is up for debate, but it certainly didn’t look good.

Now it’s up to Freeze to exceed expectations, and probably in a short amount of time.

“To develop young men to go out into society that have learned valuable, valuable lessons from this coaching staff and from playing experiences. Both good and bad,” Freeze said of his vision at Auburn. “And, hopefully, they learn from the times we’ve made mistakes (as well as) the times we got it right. Learn your beliefs truly drive your behaviors, which will create some type of habit that will give you a result.”