Freeze Drops in New SEC Head Coach Rankings
Auburn Tigers football head coach Hugh Freeze dropped in the SEC Coach Rankings for 2024, according to CBS Sports. The eighth-ranked coach for 2023 dropped two spots to 10th. Freeze is also ranked as the 33rd overall head coach in all of college football.
The voting was conducted by the college football staffs of CBS Sports and 247 Sports.
Let’s break down the evaluation to see why Freeze was knocked down a couple pegs ahead of this upcoming season.
A Weak First Season
The evaluation of Freeze’s first season and the status of Auburn Football as a whole wasn’t sugar-coated.
“Freeze’s first year on The Plains was a bit of a dud,” CBS Sports wrote, “but most knew that at least a slight rebuild was in order given the roster he inherited.”
The Tigers saw just a one-win improvement in Freeze’s first year at the helm. Auburn returned to bowl eligibility. However, they lost their fourth-straight bowl game and finished with six wins or fewer for the fourth-straight year.
They also described Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne as a “limiting factor.”
Despite the “dud” of a first season, CBS Sports had expectations that year two would see improvement.
“The former Ole Miss boss has set out to improve the talent across the board — particularly along the lines of scrimmage — and has surrounded incumbent quarterback Payton Thorne with enough talent to improve upon last year’s six-win total…Freeze’s teams have always improved between his first and second years. No reason to think 2024 will be different.”
New Coaches and One Improved Coach Ahead of Freeze
There is an argument to be made that Freeze didn’t exactly move down, but others moved up.
For example, Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz jumped from 12th to seventh in the SEC rankings following Mizzou’s breakout season, where they finished eighth in the AP and Coaches Polls, had an 11-2 (6-2) record and beat Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl Classic. That’ll give you some credit for next season.
Freeze also is being stacked against some new, yet high-tier SEC head coaches. With the addition of Texas to the SEC, Steve Sarkisian is now the third-ranked head coach in the SEC. Alabama’s new head coach Kalen DeBoer is also ahead of Freeze at fourth.
Texas was just in the College Football Playoff semifinal (Sugar Bowl), so it’s hard to justify ranking Sarkisian much lower. DeBoer just led Washington to the CFP National Championship Game and inherited a team that was also in the College Football Playoff semifinal (Rose Bowl) last season.
The one that stings a bit is Texas A&M’s Mike Elko (ninth) is ranked just ahead of Auburn. Freeze did lose to the Aggies 27-10 last season and Elko gave Duke two of their best seasons in some time, even being ranked for a few weeks in 2023. So that’s what sets them apart at least over the summer.
If Freeze improves Auburn as predicted, he’ll give some of the coaches ahead of him a run for their money. But for now, he has to settle for being 10th.
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