Auburn football has fired football coach Hugh Freeze following Saturday’s 10-3 loss to Kentucky, a game in which disgruntled Tigers fans booed the third-year Tigers coach and chanted ‘Fire Hugh’ as he walked off the field.
Freeze ends his tenure with the Tigers with a 15-19 record in his two-plus seasons. The team has lost its last five of its last six games after opening the season with an impressive road win against Baylor and followed it up with defeats of Ball State and South Alabama, both Group of Five opponents.
However, the Tigers have won just one of their six SEC games, dropping a close contest at Oklahoma before losses against Texas A&M and Georgia. In the loss to Missouri, Auburn led in the fourth quarter before allowing a late score by the Tigers. Auburn’s only win in conference play was vs. Arkansas (another team with an interim coach in Bobby Petrino, who is winless in the SEC).
Auburn’s decision to part ways with Freeze is another significant opening to the coaching carousel that has gotten off to a fast start in the 2025 season. Some of the bigger jobs to open up just this season include Penn State, Florida and LSU, who have fired James Franklin, Billy Napier and Brian Kelly, respectively.
“I have informed Coach Freeze of my decision to make a change in leadership with the Auburn Football program,’ Auburn athletics director John Cohen said in a news release. ‘Coach Freeze is a man of integrity, and we are appreciative of his investment in Auburn and his relentless work over the last three years in bolstering our roster. Our expectations for Auburn football are to annually compete for championships and the search for the next leader of Auburn Football begins immediately.”
Defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin will serve as interim coach for the rest of the season, per Auburn’s news release. Here’s what to know about why Auburn parted ways with Freeze after three seasons of leading the program:
Why did Auburn fire Hugh Freeze?
Freeze was seen as a positive hire for Auburn, not only for his past success at Mississippi and his 34-15 record in four seasons at Liberty, but also because he was one of a select few coaches to have beaten Alabama’s Nick Saban more than once (he won consecutive games in 2014 and 2015 against the Crimson Tide).
However, the Tigers never found their footing under Freeze.
The Tigers have regressed each season of his tenure after he led them to a 6-7 season in 2023, including a loss in the Music City Bowl. The Tigers followed that with a 5-7 season in 2024 and, through 10 weeks this year, a 4-5 record in 2025.
With games left against Vanderbilt, Mercer and Alabama, the Tigers need to close the season with a 2-1 record over their last three games to avoid missing a bowl for the third time in four seasons.
Auburn’s last winning season came in 2020 under Gus Malzahn, who led the team to a 6-4 start. Auburn fired him after the regular season, and interim coach Kevin Steele led the Tigers in their Citrus Bowl loss. Malzahn was fired after eight seasons despite a 68-35 record and 3-5 mark against Saban in the Iron Bowl.
Hugh Freeze buyout
Auburn will owe Freeze a buyout of roughly $15.4 million if he is fired without cause, according to a copy of Freeze’s contract, obtained by the USA TODAY Network. The university owes him 75% of the remaining payments of his contract, which was set to run through Jan. 31, 2029.
The first monthly installment is due and payable on the first regularly scheduled university payroll date following his firing. Per his contract, there is no mitigation requirement by Freeze, and Auburn would not have any right to offset any such payments.
Hugh Freeze record at Auburn
Freeze ends his Auburn tenure with a 15-19 overall record, 6-16 record in SEC play, 0-1 bowl record and, perhaps most notably, an 0-2 record in the Iron Bowl. Below is a year-by-year rundown of Freeze’s record at Auburn, including conference results and, if applicable, bowl results:
- 2023: 6-7 (3-5 SEC) (Music City Bowl loss)
- 2024: 5-7 (2-6 SEC)
- 2025: 4-5 (1-5 SEC)
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