Auburn has hired Hugh Freeze to become the Tigers’ next head football coach, sources close to the process tell CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd. Freeze, 53, last coached at Liberty having led the Flames to a 34-15 record since 2019.
Conversations between the parties began weeks ago and continued through the weekend after Auburn’s 49-27 loss to No. 7 Alabama in the Iron Bowl on Saturday. Freeze signed a memorandum of understanding with Auburn on Monday, per the Associated Press.
The former Ole Miss coach, who led the Rebels to a 10-3 season and second-place SEC West finish in 2015, addressed the rumors about becoming the frontrunner to replace Bryan Harsin on the Plains following Liberty’s 49-14 upset loss to New Mexico State on Saturday. He was surprisingly upfront in his response.
“I’m not one to tell them [the players] something that’s not true,” Freeze said. “Is the job everyone is talking about one that I would have an interest in talking with? Sure. That doesn’t mean they have offered me a job.”
The attraction to Freeze stems from his success at Ole Miss from 2012-16. He was 39-25 (including vacated wins) during his tenure and beat both Alabama and Nick Saban in back-to-back seasons (2014-15). Freeze led the Rebels to a 10-win season, a berth in the Sugar Bowl and a No. 9 final ranking in 2015, a campaign that did not include any of those 27 vacated wins.
Freeze came under fire at Ole Miss prior to the 2017 season after it was discovered that he made inappropriate calls from his school-issued mobile phone that were connected to a phone number for an escort service. Ole Miss accepted Freeze’s resignation on July 20, 2017, for what it called a “pattern of personal misconduct.”
Additionally, an NCAA investigation uncovered a lack of institutional control and fostered an unconstrained culture of booster involvement in football recruiting. That investigation uncovered 15 Level I violations that included unauthorized cash payments, use of automobiles, unauthorized lodging and unapproved meals that valued approximately $37,000.
His success with the Rebels became stained as a result of the two separate scandals. Ole Miss was penalized with a two-year bowl ban and a two-game conference suspension if he was hired by an SEC school prior to Nov. 30, 2018. Freeze was out of coaching for two years as a result of the NCAA and personal issues.
With the window for that suspension…
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