The Auburn Tigers were an unmitigated failure during the Hugh Freeze era, but especially during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The thought was that Freeze needed three years to field a contender as his 2023 and 2024 recruiting classes matured, and he mastered the rev-share free agency component in the transfer portal. 2025 was supposed to be the year.
Well, his quarterback decision, Jackson Arnold, turned out to be a miss, and Freeze was reportedly lenient with the top recruits he brought into the locker room. That led to a toxic locker room, because the players with autonomy weren't performing well.
Cam Coleman was one of them. Coleman hit the transfer portal and is likely to commit to either a team in Texas or the Alabama Crimson Tide, with the USC Trojans pulling their interest. Taking the oil money from a Lone Star State school is one thing, but Alabama landing his commitment would be a massive betrayal. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
On3's Jake Crain believes Freeze empowered Coleman to not buy in with his pandering to top stars, which led to the Tigers dramatically bottoming out before the former's firing in early November. Crain relayed that Coleman didn't practice as hard because Freeze didn't hold him and other stars accountable.
"Hugh Freeze was more into feelings and more into ... look, you want to make good people. Obviously, being a good person is one of the most important things, but you're not being paid $8 million to put a Boy Scout troop together. You're getting paid $8 million to win football games, and you can't do that with the culture and identity that he has," Crain told me.
"It's easy to see it because Auburn collapsed in every big moment, basically, during his tenure. And that's not a coincidence. That's not by accident. That is something that is cultivated, and that's why when you see these guys reading, like, I've never, and I'm not saying Cam Coleman isn't talented. He's talented, but he didn't practice hard. Like, these guys, it doesn't work in this sport.
"This isn't basketball. This isn't baseball, where you can go out there and one guy can out-talent everybody. That's not it. Look at Indiana. They're talented, but they're not more talented than Ohio State. They're not more talented than these teams that are beaten to death. It's that culture. It's that togetherness. It's that program-defining characteristic that helps you and makes that difference on fourth and one, and Auburn just didn't have that. They were too busy worrying about whether everybody was just okay. Does everybody just be okay? You can't do that at this level."
How much control did Hugh Freeze have at Auburn?
Freeze selectively punished players and held them accountable. He never had a problem letting Jarquez Hunter know he screwed up during the 2024 season, and he was sometimes brutally harsh on Payton Thorne, who was Freeze's first QB gamble in the portal.
He sounded afraid of Coleman, Eric Singleton Jr., and Deuce Knight, though. The top earners who Auburn's brain trust saw as the future were so softly coached that they took the money, underperformed, and ran at the first chance they got to advance their careers at the 2025 campaign's conclusion.
It makes one wonder if Freeze had his hands tied behind his back. It's no secret that the SEC wasn't exactly thrilled about him being brought back into a conference he was disgraced out of a decade ago and blocked from returning to for years.