An exclusive interview with Alex Golesh focused on his transition into the role of Auburn Tigers head football coach and the reasoning behind his decision to leave the USF Bulls for his first SEC head coaching opportunity. However, USA Today’s Blake Toppmeyer also took a moment to reflect on Hugh Freeze, who was dismissed from the position back in November.
Toppmeyer noted that Golesh displays an “Fe” sign in his office, representing the motto “F*** everybody” a statement of defiant self-belief. He then drew a humorous parallel to Freeze, suggesting the former Auburn coach had his own interpretation of “Fe” during his tenure.
In Toppmeyer’s words, Auburn’s post-Malzahn coaching search was nothing short of a disaster. Bryan Harsin proved to be a complete failure, and Hugh Freeze, who followed, wasn’t much better a man full of excuses rather than results. Unlike Freeze, Golesh is a coach still on the rise, but a new face alone wasn’t going to fix Auburn’s deeper issues. What the program truly lacked was an elite quarterback — not just a serviceable one and that absence at the position has long shadowed the team’s struggles.
Freeze repeatedly pointed to poor quarterback play as justification for Auburn’s losses, conveniently overlooking the fact that he was responsible for recruiting those same players. Running back Jarquez Hunter, whom Freeze did not recruit, was also frequently on the receiving end of his public criticism.
Such behavior sits at odds with the image of a “player-friendly” coach a label Freeze hardly earned. He was equally unwelcoming to the media, offering the same hollow response after every defeat: Auburn was “close.” After enduring his tenure, Tigers fans hope never to hear that word from an Auburn head coach again.
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