Getty Image / Wesley Hitt
On Monday, Auburn ruined their football program and any reputation they had of being an upstanding, moral institution in one fell swoop. The Tigers hired Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze as their next coach on Monday, marking the end to one of the most chaotic coaching searches in recent memory.
Now, on the surface, his resume is good enough. He’s won at every stop he’s been on, and beat Alabama and Nick Saban twice when he was the head coach at Ole Miss. He also turned around the fledgling program at Liberty into one of the better G5 programs.
But, this is the guy that was forced to resign at Ole Miss for allegedly buying hookers using his university-issued phone. He also has been caught direct messaging sexual assault survivors at Liberty. And, he reportedly made a 14-year-old girl undress in his office when he was at Briarcrest High School in Tennessee. Other than all of that, he’s a stand-up guy.
As part of a search that AD John Cohen described as "thoughtful, thorough and well-vetted," Auburn never reached out to former Liberty student Chelsea Andrews, the recipient of multiple unsolicited DMs from Hugh Freeze.
Story: https://t.co/1RInjawY7h
— John Talty (@JTalty) November 29, 2022
That’s not the only person Hugh Freeze has DM’d over the years. Tons of people have memories of the coach messaging them.
My DM exchange with Hugh Freeze the last time the Auburn job opened pic.twitter.com/1s6QhubEtd
— Three Year Letterman (@3YearLetterman) November 26, 2022
Hugh Freeze once told me in a DM he paid a "hell of a price" for a mistake. So I guess that's that.
— Andrew Hall (@DudeYouCrazy) November 29, 2022
One time Hugh freeze also sent me a dm when I simply mentioned his name with no tag or anything,and from what I’ve seen recently, I guess I got off easy. I simply said he wasn’t really on my pantheon of trustworthy coaches https://t.co/2758XAtxh4 pic.twitter.com/khGMlLBkRh
— TiVo Shandor (@greggers1868) November 28, 2022
This is probably not behavior you want for your billion-dollar college football franchise. Don’t worry, Auburn has a solution.
Auburn is stripping Hugh Freeze of his Twitter account
You read that right.
Part of Hugh Freeze’s deal at Auburn requires him to give away control of his Twitter.
The school now controls it. pic.twitter.com/zKlgLUB02D
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) November 29, 2022
A Sports Illustrated article states:
Multiple sources say Freeze has agreed to relinquish control of his social media accounts when he becomes the Auburn coach. The background check on Freeze was extensive, and the school hired a P.R. consultant to handle the expected blowback in bringing him aboard. They are jumping through a lot of hoops for Freeze.
As one source with Auburn ties said Sunday, “If he’s contractually obligated to stay off social media and they had to hire an ‘Oh S—’ firm before he even started, is hiring him really a good idea?”
It’s an Auburn idea. And Auburn ideas all center around winning, especially where Alabama is involved.
Auburn is going to get what’s coming to them, and it will be glorious.