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Auburn Football: Hugh Freeze returns to SEC as Tigers next head coach

By Matt Melton

FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS - NOVEMBER 05: Head Coach Hugh Freeze of the Liberty Flames on the sidelines during a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium on November 5, 2022 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Flames defeated the Razorbacks 21-19. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS - NOVEMBER 05: Head Coach Hugh Freeze of the Liberty Flames on the sidelines during a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium on November 5, 2022 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Flames defeated the Razorbacks 21-19. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
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Only a few days after the Tigers 2022 season came to a conclusion with a 49-27 loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl, Auburn Football has officially announced their next head coach in Hugh Freeze, a name that is familiar to fans in the SEC.

Hugh Freeze returns to the SEC as Auburn Football’s next head coach

Formerly the head coach at Ole Miss, Freeze comes to Auburn after four seasons as the head coach at Liberty, a span in which he compiled a combined 34-15 overall record from 2019-22. Winning at-least eight games in each of those four years, Freeze also posted one 10-win season in 2020 (10-1), while also leading Liberty to three-straight bowl victories from 2019-21.

The Flames were also ranked in the AP Poll twice during Freeze’s tenure, which came in both 2020 and 2022 (finished No. 17 in 2020, ranked as high as No. 19 in 2022).

As mentioned previously, Freeze was the former head coach at Ole Miss from 2012-16 as well, a span in which he compiled a combined 39-25 record with the Rebels. Under Freeze, the Rebels won at-least six games in every season but 2016, and were also ranked in the AP Poll in every season but 2012, his first year in Oxford.

Freeze also posted one 10-win season with the Rebels in 2015, and led Ole Miss to a bowl game in four seasons while in Oxford. Of those four bowl games, two were NY6 bowls, which came in 2014 and 2015 (Peach Bowl in 2015, Sugar Bowl in 2015), two seasons that the Rebels also rose to No. 3 in the AP Poll at some point that year.

Freeze also spent one season at Arkansas State in 2011 prior to arriving at Ole Miss, a year in which he led the Red Wolves to a 10-3 record and a bowl appearance.

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Freeze now takes over as Auburn Football’s head coach after the program was led by Bryan Harsin for a year and a half, a span in which the Tigers held a combined 9-12 record. The Tigers also held a 2-2 record under interim head coach Cadillac Williams toward the end of the 2022 season.

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