Auburn football head coaching search details: What went into the Hugh Freeze hire

The Auburn football head coaching search conducted by newly implemented athletic director John Cohen back in November — one that ended up in the hiring of Hugh Freeze — was a highly comprehensive one.

AL.com’s Tom Green shared the details of Cohen’s first major hiring and the process went into it in a piece outlining the new Auburn AD’s comfort in making the decision to hire Freeze — a decision he feels would ultimately be chastised regardless of who ended up in the head coaching seat.

“You have to be comfortable with the process,” Cohen told the AL.com Auburn football beat reporter. “And I’m very, very comfortable with the process we went through.” This was the process he was referring to:

"“The Tigers’ new athletics director was tasked with making a major hire — arguably the most important personnel choice his position entails — immediately upon taking over the reins of Auburn’s athletic department. Cohen was hired Oct. 31, just hours after Auburn fired then-coach Bryan Harsin and named Cadillac Williams as interim coach for the remainder of the season.”“What followed was a four-week long search by Cohen, aided by the search firm TurnkeyZRG, a pair of analytics firms in Matrix Analytical Solutions and SportSource Analytics and a bevy of industry experts, that led Auburn to hiring Hugh Freeze as its next head coach.”"

Auburn football coaching search leaned on experience over taking a gamble

A lesson was learned from the last time there was an Auburn football coaching search by the brain trust: don’t overlook SEC experience and don’t look past red flags. As we’ve come to know, former players didn’t always like playing for Bryan Harsin, and the lack of previously established relationships in the region was costly, especially as COVID-19 (and seemingly a personal aversion to doing so) limited his ability to foster any.

Freeze comes into the AU job with five years of recruiting cycles throughout the southeast from his time as head coach of Ole Miss, so that’s covered. That he’s been able to flip recruits who were expecting to play at Lynchburg, Virginia to come down to East Central Alabama is a testament to the relationships he fosters with his players.

Hiring Freeze wasn’t a popular decision, but that backlash will have minimal effects on the program moving forward. It’s up to Freeze and his staff to have his players ready, and it’s on his players to meet the moments when they arise.