Let’s hope Hugh Freeze has learned how to use his work phone this time.
Six years after leaving Ole Miss under a cloud of scandal after using a university-issued phone to call escort services, Freeze looks to be on his way back to the SEC. Auburn has been talking to the Liberty coach for over a week about a contract to become its next football coach, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Despite speculation about current Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin — who trolled a reporter earlier in the week and said he intends to stay in Oxford — it seems like Freeze will take over a job that has come under immense scrutiny due to an overriding feeling that Auburn’s boosters run its athletic department.
Auburn athletic director Allen Greene stepped away in August after reportedly being told his status would be decided after the football season. Coach Bryan Harsin was fired midseason following a two-year tenure in which Auburn went just 9-12 and his refusal to be vaccinated made him an immediate lightning rod for controversy.
Freeze, who left Ole Miss with a two-year bowl ban and NCAA probation, could now be asked to rebuild the Auburn program. Liberty is 8-3 this season.
After Auburn fired Gus Malzahn at the end of the 2020 season, Freeze will be the third head coach in four years if he does indeed get the job. His contract with Liberty — signed in October and lasting eight seasons — figures to be a hurdle for Auburn.
But given determined enough boosters and coaches, a buyout has never been much of an issue to navigate.
