On SI dishes on why a Hugh Freeze firing isn’t on the horizon for Auburn football

Auburn football’s Hugh Freeze era might just be getting started. Though the first two years of Freeze’s Tigers tenure have produced more losses than wins and haven’t seen the program’s underwhelming NFL draft output improve after falling off with Gus Malzahn’s departure, On SI’s Austin Walls foresees the arrangement continuing indefinitely.

“The fact that Auburn has signed Freeze for seven years says that they are committed for the long run. Coach Freeze’s buyout would be $20.3 million should the Tigers decide to let him go early now, per Maxwell Donaldson of the Gadsden Times via the Montgomery Advertiser,” Walls wrote.

“With year three coming up, Freeze will begin to have the players that he recruited on the field as well as the transfers he recruited from other schools. The Auburn Tigers could have a bright future in the Freeze Era.”

This isn’t the first time Freeze’s 2026 season was guaranteed. 247 Sports’ Phillip Marshall relayed as much via Twitter in response to an Auburn University professor’s criticism of Freeze’s tenure.

“He will get a third year and a fourth year,” Marshall said on October 19.

“What I know is that his bosses are all in,” Marshall added. “They recognize the total cluster he inherited and the way he is recruiting.”

Oh, and AU AD John Cohen personally confirmed Freeze wasn’t on any hot seat.

“No, not at any point,” Cohen told the Montgomery Advertiser. “I work at an incredible university with incredible leadership, with (University President) Dr. Chris Roberts. I have an incredible board that I serve at the pleasure of. There is constant communication in everything we do. Not just football, every one of our sports. And I really believe that all of us are on the same page. That doesn’t mean you don’t get disappointed. It doesn’t mean that you’re saying we can’t do things better. … But all the signs are there.

“Where there are top-10 recruiting classes, there is success to follow. Where there’s a team of people who are saying, ‘I will perform for this coach. I will work hard for this coach. I will help this coach in the recruiting process,’ you have something special happening.”

Freeze is being given grace after the disgrace that was Bryan Harsin’s nearly two years in charge on the Plains. There was never an easier act to follow at Auburn.

The first two years of Freeze’s tenure come close, though.