There are a lot of things that could happen during the 2026 season on the Plains that could make Hugh Freeze's nearly three-year coaching tenure look worse. There's things that could happen outside of Auburn that could truly make Freeze's time with the Tigers seem like complete coaching malpractice.
We all know about the potential Cam Coleman has with Arch Manning in the Texas Longhorns offense, while Eric Singleton Jr. could very well excel in the Florida Gators' offense with Buster Faulkner calling plays, especially if Tramell Jones Jr. gets the nod under center at some point.
Across the country, Jackson Arnold really has the chance to make Freeze look bad. The Next Round's Ryan Brown predicts that Arnold has the chance to excel in Las Vegas under Dan Mullen on the UNLV Rebels.
"I think Dan Mullen will unlock Jackson Arnold, and it probably will indict Hugh Freeze more... It will make Hugh Freeze look bad and make Dan Mullen look like a QB whisperer," Brown said on whether Arnold will be a different QB.
While Freeze's inability to land an elite QB was a major storyline explaining his lack of success, Arnold could prove that Freeze did have a good QB and squandered it. Nothing would be more devastating than seeing Arnold show out this coming season, while problems persist at the QB position for Auburn.
With that said, if Arnold and Byrum Brown both thrive, it'd be easy to write off the former's success as the Mountain West becoming a far less competitive conference after the Pac-12 stole half the conference's members.
Alex Golesh winning would do more damage to Hugh Freeze than anyone
Freeze recruited well but couldn't finish the job on the field. There was a lack of focus and a true accountability problem in 2025 and 2024, when there was serious investment in the roster financially. There was a different set of problems in 2023 involving Robby Ashford, Cadillac Williams, and others. That's a story for another day, though.
The story of today is Golesh's ability to help Auburn move on from that. No current AU student has experienced a winning season on the gridiron, and there have now been two graduating classes who never got to experience success on a consistent basis at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Not to say they didn't see great moments, since Cadillac walking onto Pat Dye Field with his arms interlocked with his players before the Texas A&M Aggies game in 2022 is a powerful image that will stand the test of time. But it's been a dramatic fall-off from the glory days.
Golesh simply winning football games is the greatest way to make up for what's been going on the last five years, but particularly the last two, when NIL spend was aggressive. Jimmy Rane and the rest of the booster class are serious about Golesh's success. Golesh proving he's serious in return is the modest bar he needs to clear. Of course, to reiterate, winning needs to be included in this recipe.
If it is, Arnold, Coleman, Singleton, and really any former Tiger could thrive and it would only be something Freeze needs to answer for.
Add us as a preferred source on Google