#15
Hugh Freeze — Auburn, November 2022
Auburn 2023–The Liberty coach whose two-year Auburn record (11-14) doesn't yet justify the ranking — but the SEC West schedule and the Iron Bowl evidence lean positive.
Year-1: 6-7 · Year-2: 5-7 · '24 Iron Bowl close · provisional
Freeze's hire from Liberty was the coaching market's most discussed second-chance bet of the 2020s — the previous Ole Miss tenure ending in NCAA penalties and the Liberty Group-of-Five years giving him three 10-win seasons. Year one at Auburn (6-7) was the wilderness; year two (5-7) was worse on its line, better on its schedule (the close Iron Bowl loss to Alabama, the close LSU loss). The 2025 evidence is the make-or-break test; the hire's ranking here is provisional and will revise sharply either way next December.
Cohort divergence
Stat-folks rank
#15
Casual-fans rank
#15
Read
consensus
Year-over-year
Prior edition rank: — \u00b7 Movement: ↑ NEW