- Current Auburn coach Hugh Freeze is facing criticism for the team’s unacceptable offensive performance.
- Auburn has a history of hiring coaches with character flaws, such as Freeze and Bruce Pearl, in the pursuit of winning.
- Meyer’s demanding coaching style might clash with the new era of player empowerment and NIL deals in college football.
Hugh Freeze says the product at Auburn is unacceptable, and he’s going to evaluate everything.
If that doesn’t make you feel good about a coach that’s wasting the best defense in the SEC and two NFL first round draft picks at wide receiver, or has three different coaches calling offensive plays during games, maybe this will.
Auburn has historically fired coaches for less, and far more important, Auburn has no shame when hiring coaches.
If you’ll hire stained and discredited coaches like Bruce Pearl and Freeze, surely you’ll throw unthinkable cash at Urban Meyer to see if one of the greatest coaches of our generation wants one more shot at the SEC.
Because that’s what it’s going to take to fix this mess.
“The good thing is, I think it gives us a good reason to believe we can win the rest of them,” Freeze said last weekend after a pitiful loss to Texas A&M.
So you’ve got that going for you, Auburn. Which is nice.
Before we get into what it’s going to take to get Meyer from his cushy job at Fox (which he’s really good at), understand Auburn hired Freeze because of his offensive prowess at previous coaching stops — and ignored NCAA violations and (how can I best say this?) personal character flaws.
Just like it ignored Pearl’s NCAA issues at three previous jobs, including getting fired at Tennessee for lying to the NCAA.
Those doling out the cash at Auburn (who have always run the show), aren’t going to be turned off by Urb’s (how can I best say this?) personal character flaws. Hell, they’ll lean into it.
That’s what they do at The Loveliest Village on The Plain, which is far and away the most perfect college environment — fans, facilities, NIL money, small college town atmosphere, buy-in — anywhere in the country.
They’ll love on Urb just like he were one of their own, which he will be from the moment he steps on the bucolic campus. And that would be intriguing to Meyer, who — I don’t know if you know this — has kind of a big ego.
Meyer likes to talk about alignment, how the president of the university, athletic director, coach and the guy washing the practice jerseys are all on the same page. Everyone wants the same thing, and will do anything and everything to get it.
That, to the very core, describes the Auburn job.
There are obstacles to making this happen, beginning with the whole player empowerment thing. There are workarounds for the salary cap (see: private NIL deals), and for the headache of structuring a pay scale (see: general manager).
But there’s no avoiding players now holding all the cards. And that may be too much to stomach.
Meyer had his infamous Circle of Trust at Florida and Brotherhood of Trust at Ohio State, where he treated elite players better than others. His unmistakable reward for those who bought in and gave everything, and a carrot for those who didn’t.
Those who don’t in this new era of the game will now simply move to the next program, the next NIL deal, the next opportunity to do it their way. There is no “their way” with Meyer, it’s his way — or else.
That’s what translates to trophies and banners and All-Americans and everything that comes with the Urb Experience. It’s roughly a six-year process that more than likely will lead to a national title, and at least one scandal.
But if you’re Auburn, and you’ve been beaten down by Nick Saban for two decades and you’re in danger of falling further behind in a significantly stronger SEC in the NIL era, you take those odds and run with it.
Or you can stick with Freeze, whose last effort against Texas A&M included every single offensive possession in the first half playing behind the chains because of penalty or lost yardage.
Or three possessions in the fourth quarter of a one-score game producing negative-one yard on 10 plays.
Auburn can hire the next hot assistant coach (Ben Arbuckle), or a hot Group of Five coach (Jon Sumrall), or Jon Gruden (who’d take the Kennesaw State job, if it were open), and be back in the same spot in a few years.
Or it can pay Freeze $16.25 million to not coach, and tell Meyer they’ll pay him whatever he wants. The NFL’s Jaguars did just that, and Meyer bit.
He’ll bite again, and more than likely win big again in a college environment where he fits perfectly. Where he’s not trying to reinvent the wheel in the NFL with grown men he can’t motivate or intimidate.
That, or Auburn can stick with Freeze, who after yet another demoralizing loss, declared Auburn was, “So close, we’re not that far off.’
The Village of Trust sounds pretty good right about now, Auburn.
