According to sources, Hugh Freeze is going to become the next head football coach at auburn.
An announcement is expected.
Liberty has been Freeze's home for the past four seasons. He's a top offensive mind in the game. This will be Freeze's second head-coaching job in the SEC, with him having led Ole Miss' program from 2012 to 2016 In back-to-back years, he beat Alabama and Nick Saban, and in 2015, he won the Sugar Bowl for the first time in forty years.
Ole Miss officials discovered that Freeze had made calls to multiple numbers associated with an escort service in the weeks leading up to the start of preseason practice. Ole Miss was banned from playing in a bowl game for two years for violating NCAA rules under Freeze.
According to the NCAA report, Freeze did not receive a show-cause penalty and promoted an atmosphere of compliance, despite being cited for failing to monitor his assistant coaches.
John Cohen narrowed his search to Lane Kiffin and Hugh Freeze. On Saturday, Kiffin said that he was staying at Ole Miss and signing a new contract worth $9 million a year.
The firing of Bryan Harsin occurred two days after the loss to Arkansas. In less than two seasons at auburn, Harsin was 9-12 and had difficulty sustaining success on the recruiting trail The athletic director who hired Harsin left the university in August. According to sources, Greene's contract wouldn't be renewed after the season.
After a mass exodus of players and assistant coaches, Harsin looked like he might be out after the first year of his contract. The process did not yield information that should change the status of the football program. Harsin had never been a head coach in the SEC. He did not fare well against Power 5 opponents.
Half of the $15.5 million owed to Harsin is due within 30 days of his firing.
Freeze agreed to a new eight-year deal at Liberty in October with an average salary of just under $5 million per year, making him one of the highest paid Group of 5 coaches in the country. Liberty football achieved several firsts on Freeze's watch, including the first AP national ranking in school history.
In the past four years, Freeze is the third head coach at auburn. At the end of the 2020 season, Malzahn was let go. Harsin didn't last long before being fired. Malzahn's first season as head coach resulted in the loss of the SEC title to Florida State, as well as a trip to the Bowl Championship Series.
In the last 12 seasons, auburn has won a national championship or played for one. Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and Ohio State are the only other schools that can claim to have made that claim.
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