Auburn position coach ‘would surpass Hugh Freeze in recruiting’
Auburn football running backs coach and former interim head coach Cadillac Williams “would surpass Hugh Freeze in recruiting” if he were ever to be reinstalled as HC or installed as offensive coordinator following a potential Freeze dismissal, says Bama Hammer’s Ronald Evans.
“Cadillac would be a popular (offensive coordinator) choice, another two or three Auburn losses and Freeze might be made uncomfortable that Williams might be turned to as the next Auburn head coach,” Evans wrote. “Cadillac as OC or Head Coach would surpass Freeze in recruiting.”
Evans spent most of his piece titled “The Aubies are in turmoil…again” doubting whether or not Freeze is the play-calling savior he was billed as; making a great point about letting Philip Montgomery torpedo his offense.
“Maybe Auburn’s savior is a good offensive coach, but well short of the ‘Offensive Guru’ label he has been given,” Evans prefaced before saying, “If Freeze is (or was) such an offensive genius, surely he would not let a current OC derail his offense.”
‘Reasons to believe’ Auburn football pairing Hugh Freeze with Gus Malzahn would fail
Evans addressed another talking point that we’ve tossed out in the past week: Gus Malzahn being brought back as offensive coordinator ahead of the 2024 season should UCF bail on the massive extension it just handed out immediately following his Knights ceding a 28-point lead and losing Baylor 36-35 at home on September 30.
According to the Bama Hammer editor, we’d all have “reasons to believe” a Malzahn-Freeze pairing would fail.
“The most surprising suggestion was that UCF might fire Gus Malzahn after this season and Auburn should hire him as OC,” Evans prefaced before saying, “Even if Malzahn does become available and if he would consider the move, there are reasons to believe a Freeze-Malzahn marriage would be doomed…a forced Freeze-Malzahn marriage would be a drama Alabama football fans would love.”
This writer disagrees with that thesis.
Malzahn is not a vengeful man. Those thinking he’d try to serve as the same sort of presence working under Freeze that current Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kevin Steele was under Malzahn — this to say that he’d cause a mutiny to usurp his boss — are sorely mistaken.
And given that a UCF dismissal would mean two straight head coaching firings for Malzahn at the Power Five level, accepting an OC role and focusing on play-calling as Freeze did the bulk of the work on the recruiting trail sounds like a win-win for Auburn football fans.
A Freeze-Malzahn marriage sounds like it could last beyond any hypothetical honeymoon period, though you’d have to think the local media would do whatever possible to plant seeds of dissent before their team ever played a game.