Hugh Freeze pleads for vote of support atop Auburn football

His team mired in a four-game Southeastern Conference losing streak, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze made an unusual move Monday: he publicly stated how much he needs a vote of support.

Other Power Conference programs Florida State and Wisconsin on Monday saw their athletics directors issuing statements of varying degrees of support for embattled coaches Mike Norvell and Luke Fickell, respectively. 

Freeze was directly asked during his regularly scheduled Monday press conference if he had spoken with Auburn's athletics director, John Cohen, or what a public vote of support from Cohen would mean to Freeze.  

"Well, it would be huge," Freeze said. "You know? That would be ... that would make everyone feel a lot better, for sure. I haven't talked to John. 

"I'm going to say, John has been so supportive every since obviously my hire. I don't get too much into ... they (administrators) have a job to do and certainly, he has people he has to answer to."

Freeze more or less then reiterated his weekend comments about his Tigers being close to turning the corner in the SEC.

Auburn's four-game league losing streak this season is by a combined 29 points and to teams ranked 15th or better nationally at the time of each matchup.

"I know how close we are and I know I can get this fixed and we're too dang close and we've got to get a little bit better play and a little bit better coaching at a few spots and I want a chance to fix this," Freeze said.

Overall, however, Freeze has compiled just a 5-15 ledger in SEC play since he returned to the league and took over at Auburn prior to the 2023 season; 11 of those defeats have come by 10 or fewer points.

It would cost Auburn approximately $15.4 million to dispatch Freeze now midway through his initial six-year pact. 

"Obviously, you know, I've totally gotten off of all social media, so I'm not sure exactly what was said in those other cases (at FSU and Wisconsin)," Freeze said, "but that's got to be reassuring to those people in there that they believe they can get it fixed. But, again, I've trusted John since I've been here to do the right things, and he's got to do what he feels is best for this program, of course.

"I think it's us. I think we fit Auburn, I think we fit the Auburn culture; I think the culture in the building has changed. I think the talent level has changed and unfortunately we just haven't gotten over the hump in a very difficult stretch of games. But, I believe that's coming very, very soon."

Could a breakthrough for the Tigers come this week? They travel to Arkansas, which was the first team in the SEC to fire its head coach when it parted last month with Sam Pittman. Florida followed suit on Sunday when it fired Billy Napier and named Billy Gonzales the interim coach, as FootballScoop first reported.

Oddsmakers initially installed Auburn as 1.5-point underdogs, but in roughly 24 hours that line has shifted to see Freeze's Tigers now favored by a single point against interim coach Bobby Petrino's Razorbacks.