Getty Image
Auburn has hired former Ole Miss and Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze to lead its football team in the 2023 season. The news sent shockwaves through the college football world given Freeze’s checkered past at those previous stops.
While with the Rebels, he made a name for himself. Freeze was able to make Ole Miss a contender in the SEC with high powered offenses and an exciting brand of football. Over his five seasons in Oxford, he was able to land a pair of victories over Alabama while cracking the top five in the polls in back-to-back seasons.
Unfortunately, things came to a screeching halt in 2016 after Freeze was forced to leave amid recruiting violations. He was accused of paying players while also being caught hiring prostitutes with his school-issues cell phone. That led to a firing, with cause, that kept the Rebels from having to pay his $5M salary for that final season.
After a brief hiatus, Hugh Freeze was given a second chance in coaching after being hired by the Liberty Flames. The Christian university offered the perfect landing spot for a redemption tour given his religious persona. The drama, however, couldn’t help but follow him.
Earlier this year, Freeze was accused of DMing a woman involved in a sexual assault lawsuit against the college. That lawsuit stated that the university “intentionally created a campus environment where sexual assaults and rapes are foreseeably more likely to occur.”
More specifically, part of the suit said that “there was a tacit policy that condones sexual violence, particularly by male student athletes, by weighing a denial more heavily than an allegation.”
That tie to the athletic department led Freeze to defend AD Ian McCaw, whose past is maybe more checkered than Freeze’s, with an unsolicited message to Chelsea Andrews, one of the women suing. The bizarre DM was posted on social media by Andrews in July.
https://twitter.com/chelsandrews/status/1545983057232027648?s=20&t=ZxsxYip-i4Z7xumcla1Ahw
Hugh Freeze called McCaw a “Jesus like leader” in a message that was wildly inappropriate given the circumstances. So, not surprisingly, she weighed in after the head coach’s most recent hire.
Chelsea Andrews posted a tweet saying Auburn didn’t reach out to her before hiring Hugh Freeze.
Yes, I heard about the football placement with Auburn.
No, Auburn never contacted me in their vetting process.
Auburn sexual assault survivors have been DMing me and many have said I inspired them to speak up.
Auburn women. Your concerns matter.
Our voices matter.
The post claims that while Auburn says there was a “a thoughtful, thorough, and well-vetted search,” Andrews was not a part of that vetting. That does seem a bit odd given Freeze’s comments could be viewed as downplaying a sexual assault victim’s claim, yet he’s being hired to lead 18 to 22-year-old college students.
Auburn has received backlash from fans and alum due to the hiring of Hugh Freeze. They’ll hope these incidents don’t follow him to the Plains.