Andy & Ari On3 - Auburn FIRES Hugh Freeze | Where do Tigers turn next?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On this emergency edition of Andy Narion 3 presented by BetMGM, Hugh Freeze is out at Auburn. What is next at the loveliest village on the plains? Hopefully more points. We'll talk about Hugh Freeze's tenure and what's next, who they might hire to be the next coach at Auburn on today's Andy Narion 3 emergency edition. We are presented by Bed-MGM. We use Bed-M-G-M-G-Lines and totals, and you can join us by joining Bed-M-GM-G- if you have not signed up for Bed-M-GM-Y yet. Use the bonus code CFB as in college football, CFB, and you'll get up to a $1,500 first-bet offer

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Starting point is 00:01:55 First bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, Rewards are non-witrable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BedMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to an emergency edition of Andy and Arion 3 presented by BedMGM. Hugh Freeze is out at Auburn. After a 10-3 loss to Kentucky. that pretty much summed up all of the issues of the Hugh Fries era at Auburn. Ari, if you had told me when Hugh Fries got hired by Auburn three years ago,

Starting point is 00:02:40 that it would be because he couldn't find a quarterback or he couldn't make a quarterback play well. Maybe it's that. I could find a quarterback puts the blame on the quarterbacks, and I'm not sure it's on them. But the Hugh Fries couldn't make a quarterback play well, couldn't have an effective offense. I would have said you were nuts. I would have said it would be something else.

Starting point is 00:02:58 else it'd be it'd be so maybe they couldn't play defense or anything else but the thing that he was good at it at liberty and old miss the reason he was hired yeah he just couldn't do it was it was wild yeah um you were watching the game against kentucky on saturday night together and it was just kind of like this is this isn't it uh you know there are certain times where i feel like we are overly reliant on individual results to try to come to big vast conclusions about the bigger picture, and I'm not sure that there is a game out there. This was the ultimate Hugh Fries Auburn game is what it was. Yeah, it was just like it kind of felt like, you know, sometimes there are games that

Starting point is 00:03:38 just kind of encapsulate the entire experience, and it kind of felt like that was the case. You're losing to a team that you should beat. You're not able to do anything functionally, offensively. Your defense plays well enough to win. Your quarterbacks are shuffled around. Like, that was the whole deal, the entire time. So, except this time, it was to a. team that truly is also kind of in a mess right now with their coach.

Starting point is 00:04:02 It was to a team that shouldn't be beating you, especially on the road. And, you know, Kentucky has had its moments in the last 10 years of being a very tough out and a very good team. This year's team isn't one of those teams. And I think there's a reason why Mark Stoops is also kind of in this conversation. Hugh Freeze coming into this game was the one that could not lose it. And they lost it in, as you said, the most Hugh Freeze way ever. And it just they couldn't take it anymore.

Starting point is 00:04:25 Yeah. And I just, I do not understand how this. happened how so much changed with him as a coach because again when he was at liberty malique willis who was an auburn cast off by the way he turned it into an NFL draft pick when he was at old miss he got really good results out of out of bow wallace and swag kelly i mean this didn't make sense and it seemed like he was a little bit checked out this year now look he was he was getting treated for cancer let's you have to Throw that in there, but he's also playing a lot of golf because we know that because he would post his scores on the USGA site.

Starting point is 00:05:05 Were they good? I don't even remember. Were they in the 70s? He's a lot better than me. Yeah. But it was, and that was an offseason thing. It was one of those if you're winning, nobody cares. Like Steve Spurrier played a lot of golf.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Nobody seemed to worry about it. But if you're not winning, it becomes a major, major issue. And just the fan base was never particularly happy with him. the fan base was split on his hire in the first place because obviously we know why he got fired in old miss there are quite a few people who weren't going to forgive that and so i think that the fan base sort of there was a group that was holding its nose from the beginning saying well i guess and then he doesn't give them anything they want from a win's perspective it's interesting because i think auburn is kind of similar to florida in this vein where hughfries did bring more talent

Starting point is 00:05:54 into Auburn. Just like Billy Napier brought more talent into Florida, but neither one of them could do what they wanted to do offensively on the field, and that was their downfall. And that's part of the reason why watching it is so difficult, too, because you know they have the players to at least be semi-functional. Like the fact that they're completely inept offensively, despite the fact that they might have one of the best wide receiver goals in the entire. It's like, how do you get to the point where you cannot get a first down? And I don't know if you saw the news conference after the game. I'm sure you did. But a reporter asked you freeze about, you know, what he would say to people who question whether he's fit to

Starting point is 00:06:27 remain the leader of the program. And he said, what I would ask for is patience. And I understand that, you know, that doesn't really get handed out in today's day and age, but we feel so damn close. And he's been saying that kind of on repeat. He's been saying they were close for the entire season and all of last season. Like, eventually you've got to get there. I'll never forget this. When I was in college, I think this was after your time in school, but, you know, you were able to start turning things in online. Yeah, that was in college. But it was like the first year or two that you were able to do that.

Starting point is 00:06:58 You type up a paper and then you would, you'd turn it in. And due, due dates were like 11.59 p.m. Right. The second that 12 hit, it was the next day and you were late. And I remember having a paper and like kind of spacing when it was supposed to turn

Starting point is 00:07:13 in. And then I like woke up and sent it to the professor like at 2 in the morning. It said, hey, sorry, this was done. I spaced it. I'm so close like obviously it's done here will you please take it I emailed it and the professor's like there are deadlines for a reason like you freeze is close close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades but yeah basically it was a long way of saying that like no one cares if you're close the thing that's important is that you're not there like it's at this point and like at this point in the season even if you were able to meet the turn in time there's nothing really that can be done to salvage what's already occurred here so um you know from my standpoint I don't know that I think that Hugh Freeze is a bad. coach who could never get Auburn to the top. I certainly do not feel about Hugh Freeze the way I did when they moved on from Brian Harsen.

Starting point is 00:07:58 I didn't think that Brian Harsen was equipped to win in the SEC period. And I think that Hugh Fries did a good enough job from a talent building perspective in order to get the team to be conceivably good. There's a reason in the off season we were kind of excited about it. Exactly. Like I think from that. I was very wrong about Auburn. It kind of it does remind me a lot of Billy Napier in that, well, you seem to do

Starting point is 00:08:16 the hard part pretty good, which is get good enough players to be competitive. What they could not do is ever put it together on. Saturday and guess what I could be the best grocery shopper on the face of the planet I can't get all the best ingredients if I can't cook I can't cook and whatever reason he isn't able to cook but that's what that's what mystifies me about he freezes he used to be able to cook like I watched him beat Alabama a couple times it'll miss and it's just it's not the same guy maybe the um kitchen is updated maybe he's not familiar with the new buttons on the oven maybe I don't know maybe the microwave is

Starting point is 00:08:51 too digital for him. I don't know why that would be the case. I don't know if the things that he used to do, you know, you're probably better at X's and O's and understanding the evolution of those types of things than I am, but maybe you just get to a point where people know what you're good at and are able to read you and you just can't do it anymore. Maybe the defense has figured him out and he didn't evolve. Because that's the thing. His offense was always known as being overly simplistic, but he could make it where it was so simple that the quarterback could operate it very easily and efficiently and could find open receivers very quickly. And it just, it wasn't there. And the actual question, too, and you showed me a post

Starting point is 00:09:29 from Peyton Thorne that he posted on his Instagram the other night or Saturday night after the loss of just a kid raising his eyebrows, kind of the implication that maybe he wasn't the problem. It's like, I don't know what it is. Was the personnel not good enough or was the coaching not good enough? And the truth is, Andy, is it doesn't matter. Right. And we will never like poor Peyton Thorne like he's done with football. He's out like we don't know if it was his fault or if you freeze his fault or both of their faults. It's probably both. Of course Peyton Thorne's going to think it wasn't his fault.

Starting point is 00:10:00 You know, you have to think about perspective. But the truth is is that they they brought in players that, you know, were speculative. Like Peyton Thorne wasn't an elite level player when he was at other places. Jackson Arnold had had a bad year at Oklahoma. Jackson Arnold was benched as a freshman in Oklahoma. Deuce Knight didn't play. Ashton Daniels wasn't, he was a speculative asset. They never really got the guy there.

Starting point is 00:10:22 And maybe my thought process was, well, Hugh Fries has shown throughout his entire career that he can get the most. He can squeeze every drop out of the wet towel of talent off that guy. And I was really excited about Jackson Arnold this year. And it just never, you know, matriculated. And it doesn't really matter why you're, you miss the deadline or why you're not there. The fact is that you are paid, you know, a pretty handsome salary to be. something and Auburn just wasn't that. So whether they're close or not or whether it's his fault or the player's fault,

Starting point is 00:10:52 I mean, none of it really matters. All we do know for sure is that it's his job to get his team to a place he did not get them. All right, let us talk about what happens next at Auburn because this is an attractive job. It's got a good roster now. This is the NIL era and the transfer portal era. So it doesn't necessarily matter that it has a good roster. But I think the fact that it has a good roster tells you that they will give you resources

Starting point is 00:11:14 you need to acquire a talented roster. So whether you can keep Cam Coleman and other good young players, I don't even know if that matters. What matters is you'll be able to get what you need at Auburn, at least based on what we've seen in the last few years. So as we go into the hot seat, I mean the hot board, hot seat, hot board. They're married.

Starting point is 00:11:36 Yeah, they're together. One side of the coin, had two sides of the same point. I haven't even looked at your hot board yet, but I'm assuming that it's probably a collection of, similar names. Well, there's one name at the top that's been bandied about for a while. Okay. But I really like, you can maybe go through the whole thing. You can do it however you want, but let's focus on somebody if there is somebody on this list that isn't just the boilerplate names that you'll find on all the other ones. Well, this guy's on every other list, but we put him

Starting point is 00:12:02 on every other list by saying he'll probably get the Auburn job. And I don't know that he'll definitely get the Auburn job. But I think John Somerall from Tulane is the guy that you'd be looking at as the kind of the quintessential candidate for this job. So he won two Sunbelt titles at Troy. He played linebacker in the SEC at Kentucky. He's worked at Ole Miss. He's been good since he's been at Tulane. He's from Alabama originally.

Starting point is 00:12:30 Like this is a guy who I think is the profile you want at Auburn. And this is the one that I think most people in the industry feel like will be the number one candidate for this job. Yeah, you know the one thing that was an interesting trend that I kind of realized, going to bed last night is most of the teams of the coaches that are on these boards these hot boards lost this weekend they did i don't know that that's an accident either yeah uh i just go through the list of coaches that were you know i don't know if these other guys are on the same hop or not but houston's willie fritz lost summer all lost georgia techs brent key lost vanderbilt's clark lee lost iowa states matt campbell i don't know how realistic it is that he'll leave but he's

Starting point is 00:13:10 on those lists they lost syracus fran brown lost and another name that's gently been complimented that maybe might not be interested in leaving, but Josh Hypoe lost on Saturday night. So, like, there are, it was a pretty interesting trend, and John Summerall's team got their doors blown off on Friday night. Yeah, they got beat by UTSA pretty bad. Yeah. And this happened last year during this season where they lost to Memphis in a similar fashion.

Starting point is 00:13:32 Yeah, but which is another coach, Ryan Silverfield, his team won. So that's another name who we're going to talk about on this list. But John Somerall, Huntsville, Alabama is where he grew up. He's played in the SEC. he's coached in the SEC. He understands how to win. Again, two Sunbelt titles at Troy, which is not easy to do. And I think the Auburn people will understand the degree of difficulty there and appreciate that. So I think that's probably where you start in terms of talking to people, but I think you also take some bigger swings at Auburn because, again, this is a place where you can win

Starting point is 00:14:06 the national title. And I know people are going to say, but they're so up and down and they are up and down but the up is national title like the ceiling at auburn is national title we've seen and you can say oh it was 15 years ago it was 15 years ago they did win the SEC west in 2017 beat the two teams that played for the national title that year yeah they went undefeated in 2004 they went undefeated in 1994 so Auburn is a place where you can win big but you are going to have to probably weather some ups and downs in one thing that we did not discuss at any point in the video and I think it's important to. It's to re-acknowledge to people who are just watching us for the first time. Andy has done a really good job of at least giving the context to regular listeners.

Starting point is 00:14:45 But I believe that Hugh Freeze's buyout is $15.8-ish million, which is a very manageable buyout in comparison to the ones that maybe LSU and Penn State are going to be subjected to. Right. And I wonder how much that takes into a part what they'll be able to spend or how aggressive they'll be able to be in the open market where there's a lot of jobs that are open. Well, let me ask you a question, because I'm wondering if are there people, because it used to be that Auburn could take from other SEC schools. Like we saw Auburn take Tommy Tuberville from Ole Miss, but then last time around when Auburn wanted to try to take Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss,

Starting point is 00:15:17 Lane Kiffin said no, he decided to stay. So I would not leave Ole Miss now for Auburn. Well, okay, would you leave Missouri for Auburn if you were Eli Drinkwitz? See that? I don't know. You're not seeing Ari's face right now in the video. Do it again, do it again. The silence was the face.

Starting point is 00:15:36 It was the grimace. It was like, I bit the side of my chair. You ever do that when you're thinking? Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I don't know. All I know is that Mizzou has been more successful in the recent past than Auburn. Right.

Starting point is 00:15:48 This is the same question with the Lane Kiff in Florida and LSU thing. If you're already in a position to make the playoff and maybe win a national championship, like, do you want to upset the Apple Car? Will Auburn be in a more advantageous financial position in trying to get their head coach because their buyout is more manageable or is everybody paying? everybody's going to pay tons of money and that there's no because it's like you can be more aggressive it feels like when you're not as exposed to the buyout aspect of this um but also i don't know where auburn would even rank on the hierarchy you do you did the coaching or the coach the job ranking last week i'm not sure auburn was on that list because it wasn't open yet but yeah i think it would be behind ls u florida in penn state yeah so you would put them forth um and then if you go why don't you just go read your hotboard real quick and let's see who's filling these jobs because I really don't even know who's going to be filling these jobs are we talking about the Auburn hotboard yeah yeah okay we haven't got let's get back

Starting point is 00:16:44 to that so we got John Summerall how about James Franklin um interesting it's very interesting you know what I think is super interesting that James Franklin resume is fairly similar to Brian Kelly's resume when he was walking out the door at Notre Dame and LSU hired him. Now, Brian Kelly had a higher ceiling because they didn't have to play in the big 10. But Auburn would take Brian Kelly's results at LSU and they would take James Franklin's results at Penn State for a time. Like right now it would make them very happy. Well, you know, I had this phone call with somebody in the business a week ago and I thought it was a very interesting thought.

Starting point is 00:17:28 But at times, we always think about the next hire and we think about the highest of the, the highest of heights that the next hire could get to. Right. But sometimes I feel like programs need two hires to reach their scene. Well, Auburn, remember, Auburn is the roller coaster. Yeah. James Franklin's the opposite of the roller coaster. So if you want to stabilize the roller coaster and get like the safety inspection unit in there to make sure that nothing goes off the rails to stabilize the program and get it back to a place where it's winning nine or ten games every year, I think James Franklin is,

Starting point is 00:18:06 the perfect hire. Now, James Franklin believes in the depths of his soul that he's going to go prove Penn State wrong. I win a title somewhere, so you want to give him the opportunity to do that. But even if James Franklin gives you the same exact results that he was just fired for from Penn State, five years from now, you can fire him, use the foundation that he built much like Penn State is doing right now and go get the guy that I can get you over the top, and I sometimes wonder if reaching your ceiling is a too higher process, not necessarily all in one. Is that a stupid overthought or do you think there's something too like hiring multiple people to get to where you want to go? Well, it makes sense. It's also, you said it. It may be that

Starting point is 00:18:47 James Franklin learned something from getting fired at Penn State. We'll find out because he's going to wind up somewhere. I don't know if he's going to wind up at Auburn, but he'll wind up somewhere. The thing that doomed Penn State or him at Penn State was that he was always a top seven team playing in the same division as two other teams that were in the top five. Right. And like, that is going to be waiting for him. But that's the same problem in the corner at SEC. Same problem. His rival is going to be Bama.

Starting point is 00:19:11 Yeah. And like if you're number one gripe about James Franklin is that he could never beat Ohio State, I got a lovely story to tell you. They're playing Alabama every year. So like, you know, it's just I think that I wouldn't, I wouldn't hate that higher. I think that if you actually believe that James Franklin, I mean, look what he did at Vanderbilt.

Starting point is 00:19:27 You can't take that away from him. Now that was more than a decade ago. So I don't know how much of it still matters. I still think it does. I think that you could get somebody to state. your program, come in and repair the foundation. Then if you can't design the interior to go back to our house analogy, then you take somebody to go pick up Auburn from where Penn State is right now.

Starting point is 00:19:46 I think that's a functional direction. So speaking of coaches who keep getting named on these lists and lost on Saturday, Brent Key from Georgia Tech, lost NC State. That's his first loss of the year. But Brent Key is, now he's at his alma mater at Georgia Tech, but I don't know that your ceiling at Georgia Tech is anywhere near what your ceiling is at Auburn. Yeah. And Brent Key has coached

Starting point is 00:20:10 offensive line at Alabama. He has been in the SEC. He understands the SEC. He understands the line of scrimmage play in the SEC. So I think this is a guy who could do the job very well. And we don't really know what his ceiling is as a coach. We've seen him take Georgia Tech to some pretty good

Starting point is 00:20:26 places so far. I mean, Georgia Tech also seems to epitomize the exact type of thing that Hugh Freeze was trying to build at Auburn, tough physical team with a pretty you know, gritty thing with a quarterback. Well, that's what Auburn wants. That's what Auburn people have always wanted out of their team. That's the Pat die model right there.

Starting point is 00:20:43 And Georgia Tech like perfected it in a way that Auburn was unable to under Hugh Free. So I think it's an interesting thought. And also, you know, losing 48 to 36 to NC States, definitely a tough night for Georgia Tech and their fans are upset. I don't know if you could look at that result while also simultaneously ignoring what he has done there because it's been incredible. Yeah. So I think Brent Key is one. and you really do need to look at. We talked about John Summerall already.

Starting point is 00:21:09 Ryan Silverfield is the guy John Summerall is playing on Friday night. Ryan Silverfield is the Memphis coach. He's been awesome at Memphis. Since he took over after Mike Norbell left for Florida State. And he's just been consistently good. Memphis is in a position to win the American this year. If they can beat Tulane, they will be in the driver's seat for a shot at the American title game. They've already beaten USF and Alex Kolis, who's another name that will mention for Auburn and is on all of these lists.

Starting point is 00:21:34 You know, Alex Golish was the former Tennessee offensive coordinator, so he's been in the SEC. He understands how all that works. So Silverfield, Goalish, those are your group of five names along with Summerall, although I think Summerall is probably the better fit of the three just because we've already seen him take a team in Alabama, two conference titles, multiple years. He's got more SEC experience. So those two are the ones that I think, or those three are the ones from the group of that I think might get the look.

Starting point is 00:22:06 And then, you know, coordinators, we always bring up Will Stein from Oregon. He's going to get a big job this offseason. I don't know which one it's going to be. He's going to get one. And then Glenn Schumann, the defensive coordinator of Georgia. Again, you're talking about the gritty, tough, like, Glenn Schumann, who came up through the Nick Sabin-Kirby-Smart machine can do that for you. There's another name on that list I'm kind of smirking at.

Starting point is 00:22:34 on the way left, second to the left. Oh, Jimbo Fisher. All right, let's talk about Jimbo Fisher. Listen, there are people at Auburn who still remember when Jimbo Fisher was an assistant there. Jimbo wants in. He's going to get a little of support from some influential people. I don't think he winds up getting the job. I don't think I would hire Jimbo Fisher if I was Auburn.

Starting point is 00:22:56 We just saw him coaching the SEC at Texas A&M. I think the worst situation for Jimbo Fisher is watching the coach that replaced him get. in year what's it two yeah uh to eight no for the first time since the mid 90s and uh you know kind of perfect the the thought there like i don't know yeah the thing is jimbo fisher from an exes and o standpoint was not getting it done at texas an him he was getting players and and what was the problem for hugh freeze he was getting players but he couldn't he couldn't run a good offense and what was the downfall of jimbo fisher at a and m couldn't run a good offense Couldn't run a good, and if I remember correctly, he was also unwilling to relent the offensive coordinator duty.

Starting point is 00:23:39 Well, he hired Bobby Petrino that last year. That was a fun, fun ride. So I just, we know he's going to be on your message boards, Auburn fans, so we're talking about him. I just don't think this is a real good idea. But you do have some really good candidates here. You have a very good job. You can get players. You can be competitive in the SEC. It's just a matter of the administration getting its act together and finding the right person.

Starting point is 00:24:06 And we will see how that goes through the next few weeks.

Andy & Ari On3 - Auburn FIRES Hugh Freeze | Where do Tigers turn next?

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