What will Hugh Freeze do with his SEC encore?
Stay in college football long enough and what goes around tends to come back around. On Monday, a new era at Auburn began with Hugh Freeze finalizing a deal to become the Tigers' head football coach. Freeze getting the whistle for the Tigers’ sidelines is his second spin in the SEC West, but what kind of impact will he have on the conference this time around?
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After two seasons with Lambuth and one as head coach at Arkansas State, Ole Miss hired Freeze ahead of the 2012 schedule to take over for Houston Nutt. Freeze developed his reputation as an offensive mind doing a great job scheming week to week for different matchups. Those skills made Freeze a headline-grabber in Oxford.
In his third season with the Rebels, Mississippi did the unthinkable beating then-No. 3 Alabama, 23-17. Freeze did it again the following season, taking down Nick Saban, but this time winning in Bryant-Denny Stadium. The reputation as a giant slayer was set for Freeze.
After being forced to resign from the head coaching job at Ole Miss in July 2017, Freeze took over as head coach for Liberty in 2019 and was immensely successful.
Freeze has coaching chops, especially on the offensive side of the ball but can he recruit?
Accepting the Auburn head coaching job is taking a seat at college football’s main table. Auburn is a high-profile program with high-profile expectations in recruiting. Former Tigers’ head coach Bryan Harsin landed the 17th-ranked class in 2021 followed by the 27th-ranked class in 2022. Freeze is expected to do much better.
Freeze’s recruiting classes with Ole Miss came with mixed results, especially if one takes into consideration how some of them were pieced together. Working with the numbers, Freeze’s first cycle with Mississippi was rated No. 40 signing just two four-stars but jumped to No. 7 in 2013 landing five-stars Laquon Treadwell, Robert Nikemdiche and Laremy Tunsil. The 2014 and 2015 classes dipped to No. 19 and No. 21 respectively before Freeze jumped back to No. 7 in 2016 landing five-stars Shea Patterson and Gregory Little.
In the NIL era, some head coaches will only be as good as the deals supporting their efforts. For Freeze to be successful on the field, the NIL deals will have to back his efforts landing elite prospects.
Over Freeze’s five-year tenure with Ole Miss, he posted a 19-18 record in the SEC with winning records in 2014 (5-3) and in 2015 (6-2). In his three other campaigns, Freeze was 8-11 overall in conference action. With Liberty, Freeze went 1-1 against the SEC losing to his former squad in 2021 while taking down the Razorbacks this season.
During Freeze’s time with Ole Miss, he helped usher in an offensive change in the league. A pro-style ground-and-pound approach was everywhere but philosophies morphed with teams expanding their passing attack. Spread offenses are now the norm, even adopted by Saban at Alabama. To handle the offenses, the importance of having an edge rusher and a deep secondary with speed burners is now a common practice in the SEC; Freeze’s offensive game plans will not force division-wide changes in his return.
There is excitement on The Plains again with Freeze returning to the SEC. Freeze has done more with less in the past but should be able to compete athlete to athlete at Auburn giving the opposition cause for concern. What Freeze makes of this opportunity, time will tell, but more will be expected of him on The Plains than when he was in Oxford posting a 19-18 record against SEC teams.