Hugh Freeze to Auburn: Why Tigers reportedly moved on from Lane Kiffin to target Liberty, former Ole Miss coach

Zac Al-Khateeb

Hugh Freeze to Auburn: Why Tigers reportedly moved on from Lane Kiffin to target Liberty, former Ole Miss coach image

This report has been updated from a previous version.

The college football coaching carousel is spinning faster and faster, with Auburn joining Nebraska and Colorado in the news with a potentially impactful coaching hire in the works.

Multiple reports on Saturday indicate the Tigers have zeroed in on Liberty's Hugh Freeze to take over the program from interim coach Cadillac Williams, who in turn is leading the program in place of the recently fired Bryan Harsin.

Unlike Matt Rhule at Nebraska, however, it appears Freeze was not the first coach Auburn preferred to take over the program. That would be Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who was rumored to be interested in the job earlier in the week before vehemently denying those reports.

Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated reported early Saturday that Auburn had keyed in on two candidates — Kiffin and Freeze — before the Tigers ultimately focused solely on Freeze:

COACHING CAROUSEL: Nebraska | Colorado

ESPN's Pete Thamel corroborated Dellenger's report in an appearance on "College GameDay," saying, "Kiffin's Auburn candidacy is over and Hugh Freeze has emerged as the top candidate."

Brett McMurphy of the Action Network reported that Freeze has informed Liberty he is talking to Auburn, but did not indicate whether he would take the job.

Here's everything you need to know about Auburn's reported interest in Freeze, as well as why the Tigers first looked to Kiffin in naming their next head coach:

Why is Auburn hiring Hugh Freeze?

It's clear based on Auburn's choice of candidates that it prefers an offensive-minded head coach. Freeze is one of the nation's top such candidates, as evidenced from his time at Liberty and, before that, a successful and controversial stint at Ole Miss.

Hugh Freeze's best season at Ole Miss came in 2015, a season in which the Rebels ranked 10th nationally in total offense (517.8 yards per game) and eighth in scoring offense (40.8 points per game).

Freeze has also had success at Liberty, a program he took over in 2019. The Flames have never won fewer than eight games under Freeze, who has also produced an NFL-caliber quarterback in Malik Willis, whom the Tennessee Titans drafted in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Year Team Record Bowl
2011 Arkansas State 10-3 GoDaddy.com Bowl (loss)
2012 Ole Miss 7-6 BBVA Compass Bowl (win)
2013 Ole Miss 8-5 Music City Bowl (win)
2014 Ole Miss 9-4 Peach Bowl (loss)
2015 Ole Miss 10-3 Sugar Bowl (win)
2016 Ole Miss 5-7 N/A
2019 Liberty 8-5 Cure Bowl (win)
2020 Liberty 10-1 Cure Bowl (win)
2021 Liberty 8-5 LendingTree Bowl (win)
2022 Liberty 8-3 TBD

Freeze is one of only two active head coaches with multiple victories over Alabama's Nick Saban, the other being UCF — and former Tigers coach — Gus Malzahn. Beating the Crimson Tide is the top job priority of any Auburn coach, and Freeze was able to pull the feat off in both 2014 and 2015.

Those wins are particularly impressive, as Freeze joined former LSU coach Les Miles (2010-11) as the only coaches to beat Saban in consecutive seasons. Only two other coaches have even beaten Saban twice in a row, though none were in consecutive seasons: Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville in 2004 (vs. LSU) and 2007 (vs. Alabama); and Georgia coach Mark Richt in 2004 (LSU) and 2007 (Alabama).

Dennis Dodd of CBS reported on Monday that Auburn has received "pushback" from hiring Freeze as a result of the way he left Ole Miss. Dodd reported the Rebels' first choice was Kiffin, then Freeze.

Later on Monday, independent reports by Bruce Feldman of The Athletic and Dellenger indicated Auburn was hiring Freeze:

MORE: Is Lane Kiffin going to Auburn? Latest rumors on Ole Miss coach as Tigers reportedly close in

Did Auburn target Lane Kiffin?

A Wednesday report from Columbia, Miss.-based news station WCBI indicated Kiffin was going to step down from the Ole Miss job on Friday to take the job at Auburn.

Kiffin was quick to deny those rumors, however, responding to the tweet by telling WCBI sports director Jon Sokolof that it was "news to him."

Ensuing reports indicated Auburn and Kiffin had been in talks, but that the Ole Miss coach's family wanted to stay in Oxford.

Dellenger on Saturday reported that Ole Miss had offered Kiffin a new eight-year contract that pays an annual of $9 million per year. He added that the contract does not violate Mississippi State law stating public employees can't have contracts of longer than four years, since it will be done through the school's private foundation.

MORE: Hugh Freeze says he owns Ole Miss allegations, then denies, denies, denies

Why did Hugh Freeze resign from Ole Miss?

Freeze resigned from Ole Miss in July 2017 following a discovery he had used a university-issued phone to contact a Detroit number with ties to a Florida-based escort service. The athletic director at the time, Ross Bjork, offered Freeze that option over getting fired as a result of violating the morals clause in his contract.

Freeze's calls to the escort service were only uncovered as part of discovery for a defamation lawsuit against Freeze and Ole Miss by former Rebels coach Houston Nutt. Freeze's predecessor accused both parties of falsely blaming him for recruiting violations.

Eventually, the NCAA in 2019 found both Freeze and Nutt to be guilty of infractions, resulting in a two-year postseason ban, three years of probation and four-year scholarship reduction for the program. Ole Miss also vacated 33 wins from 2010 to 2016, 27 of which were under Freeze (only the 2015 season was unaffected).

Freeze's forced resignation from Ole Miss has been viewed as a significant hurdle for him to rejoin the SEC. Indeed, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey reportedly denied Saban from hiring Freeze as his offensive coordinator in 2018 because of the way he left Oxford.

It appears Freeze has cleared those hurdles as Auburn continues talks with the successful college coach.

Zac Al-Khateeb

Zac Al-Khateeb Photo

Zac Al-Khateeb has been part of The Sporting News team since 2015 after earning his Bachelor's (2013) and Master's (2014) degrees in journalism at the University of Alabama. Prior to joining TSN, he covered high school sports and general news in Alabama. A college sports specialist, Zac has been a voter for the Biletnikoff Award and Heisman Trophy since 2020.