Is this the season that Hugh Freeze and Auburn “roar” to the top of the SEC?
It is no secret that the temperature of Hugh Freeze’s seat has increased as he enters year three on the Plains with an 11-14 record and zero bowl wins in his first two seasons.
Sure, Freeze has built a talented roster through high school recruiting and filled needs through the transfer portal. The development of those players, however, needs to show on the field this season to decrease the pressure surrounding him.
Is Freeze up to the task? USA TODAY Sports columnist Blake Toppmeyer hopes to learn the answer to that question by season’s end. Toppmeyer recently revealed his rankings of SEC head coaches heading into the 2025 season, where he placed Freeze at No. 12 behind Oklahoma’s Brent Venables and ahead of Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea.
When explaining Freeze’s low ranking, Toppmeyer compared the Auburn head coach to pop star Katy Perry, who is known for smash hits including “Firework”, “Roar”, and “Last Friday Night.” Toppmeyer believes that Freeze and Perry are following similar career paths and is interested to see if Freeze’s trajectory will change in 2025.
Freeze is like Katy Perry. Both were good once, but their best work occurred more than a decade ago, and they’re starting to come off like hangers-on, clinging by their fingertips to a world that left them behind. Credit Freeze for recruiting well, but a lot of coaches would recruit well at Auburn. He needs to coach and develop better. There’s enough talent on offense to produce more in 2025. This becomes a pivotal season for his tenure.
Freeze is best known for his success at Ole Miss by winning 39 games and three bowl games over four years. In Oxford, he increased his win total every season until the 2016 season, when several wins were vacated due to NCAA investigations. Freeze also found…
Source link : https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/football/2025/04/28/auburn-football-hugh-freeze-katy-perry-sec-coaching-ranking/83324023007/
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Publish date : 2025-04-28 15:00:00
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