Auburn Tigers football coach Hugh Freeze's tenure hit a major lowpoint on Monday, with Damari Alston leaving the team and being framed as not meeting the program's standards. Several former and current players, and writers close to the program strongly rebuked that idea.
"Thats bad by Freeze man. As if they kicked Damari off the team," Chandler Wooten said. "He’s clearly not 100%, and what senior who has to have a productive year should sit and rot when they have a coach who is unwilling to consistently run the football?"
"Failed to meet the expectations of the team? Yeah right. You literally made him a captain. He asked to redshirt, you didn’t kick him off. Just say the facts. He did everything. Great grades, team player. He was literally a captain and on the leadership committee," former Auburn beat writer Phillip Dukes said.
Perhaps the most notable reaction was freshman quarterback Deuce Knight, who called Alston a stand-up guy and his right-hand man since arriving on the Plains from Lucedale, Mississippi.
— AUFAMILY (@AUFAMILY) October 13, 2025
Losing Deuce Knight would be the end of Hugh Freeze in Auburn
If not coming to an agreement with Alston ends up losing Knight, Hugh Freeze will be a former Auburn football coach soon enough.
Knight should already be questioning if Freeze's offense is a good fit. It's possible he could've had a better chance to start on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish competing against CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey. Perhaps he flipped to AU from ND for a bad cause.
It'd be great to retain Knight, but no one could be mad at him if he does end up transferring. His good friend had an ugly exit from the program and he's had to see Jackson Arnold sputter in an ineffective offense that's not playing to his strengths.
Knight could be another example of talent wasted by Freeze if/when the Oxford, Mississippi, native is fired.