The Auburn Tigers' Week 10 matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats at Jordan-Hare Stadium has officially been dubbed a "loser leaves town matchup." Kentucky Sports Radio's Matt Jones told McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning that neither Hugh Freeze nor Mark Stoops will survive a loss.
Jones leaned towards UK surviving the matchup despite being a double-digit underdog and coming off a 22-point loss to the Tennessee Volunteers at Kroger Field.
“I think Kentucky has a chance. It’s sort of a loser leaves town coaching matchup,” Jones said. “Hugh Freeze can’t survive a loss to Kentucky. I’m fairly certain that Mark Stoops will not be the coach at Kentucky if he loses. So, there’s a lot at stake on Saturday. I think Kentucky has a decent chance.”
Auburn may have missed chance to capitalize on a Hugh Freeze firing
Some feel Auburn missed the chance to truly capitalize on getting rid of Freeze.
For one, Saturday Down South's David Wasson believes teams like the Arkansas Razorbacks have been able to sneak ahead of AU if/when they do decide to pull the trigger on firing Freeze if that's their ultimate plan.
"Even if Auburn were to lose to Kentucky at home on Saturday and show Freeze the door on Sunday, the Tigers are looking up at the Razorbacks in the imaginary “Coaching Opening Value” metric. Auburn boosters might be well-heeled, but they aren’t Wal Mart-level well-heeled – which is to say that the Hogs can and will be able to NIL-spend circles around Auburn moving forward whether Freeze survives the weekend and season or not," Wasson wrote.
"The longer Auburn waits to fire Freeze, the longer it waits to dive into the pool with everyone else fighting for what you gotta figure would be a diminishing amount of desirable coaches. The longer Auburn waits to go all-in on shoving Freeze all-out on the Plains, the less value that job retains."
Freeze's Tigers taking a 33-24 win over the Razorbacks doesn't seem to have quieted the firing talk among many. It was never going to be, since a win should be a formality for Auburn, and anything short should result in his firing. Enough is definitely enough, and the sportsbooks are setting Freeze up for a backlash he might not survive.
But a win all but clinches a bowl game and, because of the bad officiating in the Oklahoma Sooners and Georgia Bulldogs games, there's likely to be extra leniency for a 6-6 finish.
Only if AU beats the Wildcats and Mercer Bears, though.