It’s become a running joke in college athletics that the best person to be is a recently-fired football coach who just earned a buyout. There are reasons for that – literally millions – as coaches who have failed at their jobs continue to get rich due to buyouts in their contracts that have been sharply negotiated by their agent, and most likely, Jimmy Sexton.
Auburn is no stranger to this phenomenon, as the last three head coaches have earned a pretty penny by being fired by the Tigers. It started with Gus Malzahn earning $21.5 million in 2020 after eight years in charge. Granted, those years all led to winning seasons, an SEC Championship, an appearance in the BCS title game, and another trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. If Auburn fans knew what was coming in the next five seasons, they would have wanted Malzahn to stay on the Plains.
Auburn leads the SEC with three head coaches earning major buyouts over the last six years
Allen Greene took a risk when he hired Bryan Harsin from Boise State to replace Malzahn. A coach out of his comfort zone – he had never coached in the SEC – Harsin lasted less than two seasons as problems continued to build under his watch, including a losing record and a lack of recruiting and relationships with high school coaches. He was paid a cool $15.3 million to go away to his Idaho bungalow to work out and occasionally throw shade on Twitter after an Auburn loss.
In comes Hugh Freeze, who seemed like a home-run hire when John Cohen introduced him as Auburn’s new head football coach in December 2022. Things seemed to be on an upward trajectory in his first season, making a bowl and bringing in back-to-back top 10 recruiting classes. All of that promise came to a sudden halt halfway through his third season in charge, with the final nail in his tenure coming after a 10-3 loss to a bad Kentucky team in Jordan-Hare Stadium. For his efforts, Freeze was given $15.8 million.
Now, those numbers are nowhere close to what Texas A&M had to pay Jimbo Fisher ($77 million) or LSU owed Brian Kelly ($54 million) or even what Kentucky had to pay Mark Stoops ($38 million) after the head coach had the friendliest contract in the history of sports, but Auburn does lead the SEC in amount of coaches that they have paid to go away.
Hopefully, that trend stops with Alex Golesh.