After many months, it seems that the Auburn football coaching search is coming to a close. Bryan Harsin was fired before he could even finish his second season on the Plains, finishing off his run in bad shape with the Auburn family.
Cadillac Williams was named interim head coach in Harsin’s place, and was immediately able to turn the energy of the program around and help the team pick up a few more wins this season. Meanwhile, the talk of the past few weeks has revolved around who will be the next head coach of Auburn football.
From the very beginning, the top candidate in the coaching search was Lane Kiffin, and though the deal got so close, it ultimately fell through in the end. Kiffin’s family made a major push for him to stay in Oxford, and he also lost a few games toward the end of the season, and both Auburn and Kiffin took steps back from each other.
Fly War Eagle wrote earlier today it was likely that the coaching search ended today, and it seems that is what is going to happen. Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated tweeted out the news:
Auburn is finalizing a deal to hire Liberty coach Hugh Freeze, sources tell @SINow.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 28, 2022
Freeze would return to the SEC, where in 2017 Ole Miss fired him amid NCAA and personal scandal. In 12 years as a college head coach, he’s had one losing season.
Despite receiving quite a bit of pushback from the fanbase over the weekend, it seems that Athletics Director John Cohen is moving forward with Liberty’s Hugh Freeze. Over his four years at Liberty, Freeze’s record was 34-14, and he took the Flames to three bowl games and one 10-win season.
Hopefully the administration has done their due diligence when it comes to Freeze, and he will be a top-notch hire for the Tigers that are in bad need of a turnaround.