Auburn Tigers football coach Hugh Freeze is on one of the hottest seats in the country ahead of the 2025 season.
Goodwill is gone after recruiting took a turn in June. While it turned back in July, it's unclear what the new NIL regulations announced by President Donald Trump's White House in an executive order will mean for programs.
Nick Saban is the co-chair of Trump's commission on college sports. If the game goes back to the way it was while Saban was winning titles with the Alabama Crimson Tide, then the Tigers may be in good shape. AU was a regular top-10 recruiting finisher during the pre-NIL era under Gus Malzahn.
Maybe they consider bringing the current Florida State Seminoles offensive coordinator back after a year in Tallahassee?
Auburn might have some time to consider it if Freeze doesn't have the ship turned around by the midway point of the 2025 season.
On SI's Ore Gaines believes it's "hard to visualize" Freeze having "much longer of a leash."
"Freeze’s predecessor posted a record at Auburn of 9-12 before being fired. Currently, Freeze has an 11-13 record at Auburn, not too much better. It is hard to visualize Freeze has much longer of a leash if Auburn isn’t sitting well near midseason," Gaines wrote.
Freeze has coasted on the Bryan Harsin excuse for years, but gave Tiger fans the idea that he is falling into the same lazy/non-existent recruiting habits that did the Boise native in. Freeze's golf obsession has gone viral this offseason for all the wrong reasons.
Get off to a slow start, and this thing is over. DJ Durkin lies in waiting as a potential interim/long-term option, but Freeze's low buyout cost, via NBA-styled stretch-and-waive contract language, puts more options on the table than the potential internal promotions already on the Plains.