The Auburn Tigers football program is in a season of transition after wrapping up a dismal 2022 regular season. The Tigers fired head coach Bryan Harsin in the middle of the year and Cadillac Williams was promoted to finish the season 5-7. Auburn misses a bowl game for the second-straight season and now searches for a new head coach.

The powers-that-be seemed to be all in on hiring Lane Kiffin, but he rebuffed them for a new 8-year, $9 million per year deal to stay in Oxford. This forced new athletic director John Cohen to turn to Plan B.

According to Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated, the Auburn Tigers are finalizing a deal to hire Hugh Freeze as its next head football coach. Freeze just wrapped up his fourth season at Liberty.

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Freeze will come back to the SEC after being fired at Ole Miss due to problems with the NCAA. His record during his time in Oxford officially says 12-25, however 27 wins were taken away due to his violations meaning his was 39-25 over his five-year span.

He has a 3-0 bowl record while leading the Liberty Flames with a 34-15 all-time record.

Freeze's return doesn't come without controversy as women have written letters not to hire him. During his time at Liberty he reached out to a sexual-assault victim on behalf of his accused player, drawing criticism on his involvement.

He left Ole Miss with 27 vacated wins, a two-year post-season ban, four-years of limited scholarships and three years of probation. It's been six seasons since he returned to the SEC.

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