Hugh Freeze

Hugh Freeze
Freeze as Auburn head coach
Current position
TitleHead coach
TeamAuburn
ConferenceSEC
Record6–7
Biographical details
Born (1969-09-27) September 27, 1969 (age 54)
Oxford, Mississippi, U.S.
Playing career
Baseball
1989–1990Northwest Mississippi CC
Fall 1990Southern Miss
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1992–1994Briarcrest HS (TN) (OC/DB)
1995–2004Briarcrest HS (TN)
2006–2007Ole Miss (TE/RC)
2008–2009Lambuth
2010Arkansas State (OC)
2011Arkansas State
2012–2016Ole Miss
2019–2022Liberty
2023–presentAuburn
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
2005Ole Miss (assistant AD)
Head coaching record
Overall80–54[a]
Bowls5–3[b]
Tournaments1–2 (NAIA playoffs)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
1 Sun Belt (2011)
2 MSC West Division (2008–2009)
2 Tennessee HS 8-AA (2002, 2004)
6 Tennessee HS 8-AA Regional (1995–1998, 2001, 2002)
Awards
AFCA Southeast Region COY (2009)
Mid-South Conference COY (2009)
AP HS COY
5× Region 8-AA COY

Danny Hugh Freeze Jr.[2] (born September 27, 1969) is an American football coach who is the head coach at Auburn University.[3] A successful high school football coach at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis, Tennessee, Freeze coached Michael Oher and Greg Hardy. He subsequently was the head football coach at Lambuth University from 2008 to 2009, Arkansas State University in 2011, the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) from 2012 to 2016, and Liberty University from 2018 to 2022.

Under Freeze, the Ole Miss football program committed various recruiting and academic violations that figured in the NCAA's decision to expunge 27 of Freeze's wins and ban the team from post-season play for two years.[4] After university officials attempted to paint Freeze's predecessor as the main culprit, they were sued for defamation and they subsequently issued a public apology.[5] The team's star quarterback and other players told NCAA officials that Freeze lied to them about the charges while he recruited them.[6]

Freeze resigned from Ole Miss in 2016 after officials discovered that he had used a university cellphone to call escort services at least a dozen times over 33 months.[7][8]

  1. ^ a b "Ole Miss football forced to vacate 33 wins after investigation". WREG.com. February 12, 2019. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  2. ^ "Nicholls coaching search nets 42 applicants". Houma Today. December 24, 2009. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
  3. ^ Low, Chris (November 28, 2022). "Auburn hires 'the best fit,' chooses Hugh Freeze as next coach". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  4. ^ Axson, Scooby (February 12, 2019). "Ole Miss to vacate 33 FB wins after violations". SI.com. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Review shows 12 Freeze calls to escort numbers". ESPN.com. August 22, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).