The Sunday morning columns are out. As expected, Auburn Hugh Freeze is the subject of a majority of them from the Plains to the national scale.
Freeze headlined Sunday’s column by USA TODAY Sports’ Blake Toppmeyer, who feels that Auburn needs to make a change in leadership following the Tigers’ Week 10 loss to Kentucky. In the 10-3 loss, Auburn failed to score a touchdown against the SEC’s No. 14-ranked scoring defense and has managed just one offensive touchdown over the last two games. Auburn was also limited to just one red zone trip, and its quarterbacks were sacked seven times.
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Toppmeyer shared his thoughts on Freeze, and coaching decisions made by Auburn’s Athletic Directors since the firing of Gus Malzahn in 2020.
That Auburn will do anything but fire Hugh Freeze. He’s toast. There’s no recovering from a 10-3 loss to Kentucky for a third-year SEC coach. Auburn fans are as indefatigable as any, but even they cried uncle on the Freeze tenure and headed toward the Jordan-Hare Stadium exits early. Those who stayed ‘til the end booed Freeze as he left the field.
If Auburn has any self-respect for its football program, Freeze will have a buyout check in his hand by high noon.
Consider this a five-year comeuppance for Auburn firing Gus Malzahn in 2020 and forking over what, at the time, ranked as the largest buyout in the sport’s history. Malzahn never served a losing season, but Auburn thought it could do better.
Toppmeyer also pointed out that the aspects Freeze was hired to fix, offense and quarterback play, are as poor as ever at Auburn, and that his signature line of “we’re so close” is beginning to sound like a broken record.
Freeze has a tough road ahead of him as he prepares his team to face No. 11 Vanderbilt, Mercer, and No. 4 Alabama to close out the regular season. He needs two wins to avoid missing a bowl game for the second-straight season and losing seven games for the fifth straight season.
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This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: USA TODAY’s Blake Toppmeyer believes Auburn must fire Hugh Freeze
