Hugh Freeze
Now
Career arc
Bowls and playoffs: 6-2
2012BBVA Compass BowlW 38-17
2013Music City BowlW 25-17
2014Peach BowlL 3-42
2015Sugar BowlW 48-20
Liberty
2019Cure BowlW 23-16
2020Cure BowlW 37-34
2021LendingTree BowlW 56-20Auburn
2023Music City BowlL 13-31
Report card
Defense carries it: 84th percentile defense, above the median offense at 72nd.
Auburn, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.
Offense
Defense
Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.
Fans
No fan talk about him on our list yet. His record is on Career.
Stats
Big games
Pick a job to see its years on their own.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
1-0 against his rivals at Arkansas State.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
7-6 against his rivals at Ole Miss. Just 1-3 against Bret Bielema.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
2-0 against his rivals at Liberty. Just 1-2 against Dino Babers.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
0-5 against his rivals at Auburn. Winless in 3 tries against Kirby Smart.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
10-11 against his rivals. Just 1-3 against Bret Bielema.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
ATS is his record against the spread: did his team beat the closing betting line, winning by more than it or losing by less? Lines start in 2013; a dash means fewer than 6 of those games had one. One-score games carry no spread record: a big favorite that wins a close game has almost always failed to cover, so that number would say nothing about the coach.
How he plays
Run/pass mix, by field position
Ran more than the situation called for under Montgomery.
2,181 run and pass snaps at Auburn, 2023–2025, his own games, one row per offensive coordinator. Each cell is how much more often he passed than the rest of FBS did in the same situation (field zone, down, distance, score, quarter, same season), in percentage points.
Pass rate, stint by stint
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.
Building the roster
Six numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
His recruiting, really
His 3 ranked Auburn classes of his own have averaged #12 nationally — best #8, worst #18.
Liberty
AuburnAcross every program: 6 ranked classes of his own, averaging #56 nationally.
His class — he had the full signing cycleTransition — he was hired mid-cycle
Rank is each signing class’s national recruiting rank (#1 is best). Only a class he had a full signing cycle to build counts as his; inherited and mid-transition classes still show here, faded, but stay out of the average.
Followed him here
Arkansas State→
Ole Miss2012Liberty→Auburn2023Players who transferred from his old program to his new one through the portal in the same year he made the move. Name-matching across data sources misses some, so every count is a floor, not an exact number.
Roster ownership
Roster ownership
of his 2025 roster arrived on his watch — 103 of 116 players. The other 13 are holdovers from before he was hired.
Of his own players on this roster, 19% came through the transfer portal; the rest are non-portal arrivals (high-school signees, JUCO transfers, walk-ons).
26% of his 164 new players since 2023 came through the portal (FBS programs, same seasons: 25%). His share was 25% in 2023 and 33% in 2025.
Graded on the players who arrived and the players who left together, his portal seasons came out better than most FBS programs’ in 2 of the 3 seasons graded. our read
Each player counts once, in the season he arrived. 2021, the first season of portal tracking here, is left off because its arrival records look incomplete (about 31 new players per FBS team, against 52 in 2022). Portal grade: the site’s position-value-weighted scoring (the same engine as the Portal Heat feed and the “Who won the portal” grade): the value of the players who came in minus the value of the ones who left, ranked against every FBS program’s grade that same season. A season with fewer than 4 transfers in and out is not graded.
“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.
Size up front
Size up front
Offensive linemen on his Auburn rosters have averaged 8 lb heavier than the FBS average (2023–2025) — heavier than 91% of FBS coaching runs since 2010. In the three seasons before he arrived, Auburn’s line averaged 9 lb heavier than the FBS average.
Average listed weight of every offensive lineman on each season’s roster, holdovers included, against every FBS roster that season (2010 on; a program needs 3+ seasons under him to appear). Weights are the ones programs publish, and programs list differently. This describes size only — not scheme, and not quality.
Where he recruits
is his biggest recruiting state: 33 of 73 signees (45%) across his 2023–2025 tenure, drawn from 14 states in all. Next: GA (15).
82% of his signees come from AL and its 4 border states (GA 15, FL 6, MS 3, TN 3).
Off this map: 4 signees to the north (MD 3, MN), 3 to the west (CA, NV, others) and 1 to the south (FL).
- median hometown distance
- 131 mi
- within 100 mi
- 40%
- within 500 mi
- 80%
- beyond 1,000 mi
- 3%
The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.
The NFL pipeline
The NFL pipeline
players drafted into the NFL off his teams here. He brought in 7 of them himself; 5 arrived under Gus Malzahn (3), Bryan Harsin (2). 1 more can’t be traced to who brought them in (no roster record). 1 went in the first round.
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | R1.31 | Keldric Faulk | Defensive Edge |  Tennessee Titans | |
| 2026 | R3.03 | Keyron Crawford | Defensive Edge |  Las Vegas Raiders | |
| 2026 | R4.28 | Connor Lew | Center |  Cincinnati Bengals | |
| 2026 | R4.32 | Jeremiah Wright | Offensive Guard |  New Orleans Saints | recruited under Gus Malzahn |
| 2026 | R6.05 | Bobby Jamison-Travis | Defensive Tackle |  New York Giants | |
| 2025 | R4.15 | Jarquez Hunter | Running Back |  Los Angeles Rams | recruited under Bryan Harsin |
| 2025 | R5.22 | KeAndre Lambert-Smith | Wide Receiver |  Los Angeles Chargers | |
| 2025 | R6.18 | Jalen McLeod | Linebacker |  Jacksonville Jaguars |
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | R5.01 | Nehemiah Pritchett | Cornerback |  Seattle Seahawks | recruited under Gus Malzahn |
| 2024 | R5.29 | Jaylin Simpson | Safety |  Indianapolis Colts | recruited under Gus Malzahn |
| 2024 | R6.16 | D.J. James | Cornerback | Seattle Seahawks | Estimated |
| 2024 | R7.24 | Justin Rogers | Defensive Tackle |  Dallas Cowboys | |
| 2024 | R7.27 | Marcus Harris | Defensive Tackle |  Houston Texans | recruited under Bryan Harsin |
A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.
News
No outlet on our list has written about him by name yet. His record is on Career.
Career
Coaching career
The arc of his career is on Now.
Steady no large move in either direction on our stature ladder
10th-best Auburn tenure of 16 by the numbers.
Followed Bryan Harsin (2021–2022) · succeeded by D.J. Durkin (2025).
| Season | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||
| Record | 6-7 | 5-7 | 4-5 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | — | — | |
| Coordinators | ||||
| OC | Philip Montgomery | Derrick Nix | Derrick Nix | |
| DC | Ron Roberts | Charles Kelly / D. J. Durkin | D. J. Durkin | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||
| Offense | 36 | 63 | 56 | |
| Defense | 69 | 82 | 86 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||
| 1st-down pass% | 35.9 | 47.5 | 43.7 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 34.8 | 44.0 | 37.3 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 32.3 | 25.9 | 38.6 | |
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
AI Narratives — “Auburn's Portal Math and 2025 Outlook” and 4 more on the team page.
2nd-best Liberty tenure of 4 by the numbers.
Followed Turner Gill (2018) · succeeded by Jamey Chadwell (2023–now).
| Season | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 8-5 | 10-1 | 8-5 | 8-4 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | W bowl | W bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | |||||
| OC | Kent Austin / Maurice Harris | Kent Austin / Maurice Harris | Kent Austin / Maurice Harris | Kent Austin / Maurice Harris | |
| DC | Scott Symons | Scott Symons | Josh Aldridge / Scott Symons / Jack Curtis | Josh Aldridge / Jack Curtis | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | 83 | 93 | 71 | 39 | |
| Defense | 43 | 34 | 80 | 74 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | 49.4 | 39.9 | 45.7 | 45.1 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 49.0 | 34.6 | 29.8 | 24.0 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 16.0 | 32.4 | 52.9 | 29.8 | |
Outperforms his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in smaller-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
3 NFL Draft picks: Antonio Gandy-Golden (2020), Malik Willis (2022), Demario Douglas (2023)
6th-best Ole Miss tenure of 17 by the numbers.
Followed Houston Nutt (2008–2011) · succeeded by Matt Luke (2017–2019).
| Season | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||
| Record | 7-6 | 8-5 | 9-4 | 10-3 | 5-7 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | W bowl | L bowl | W bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | ||||||
| OC | — | — | Matt Luke / Dan Werner | Matt Luke / Dan Werner | Matt Luke / Dan Werner | |
| DC | — | — | Dave Wommack / Jason Jones | Dave Wommack / Jason Jones | Dave Wommack / Jason Jones | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||
| Offense | 50 | 62 | 27 | 93 | 46 | |
| Defense | 84 | 71 | 96 | 86 | 12 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 42.2 | 43.3 | 41.3 | 50.9 | 48.5 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 33.0 | 42.2 | 50.7 | 40.0 | 44.3 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 30.6 | 35.7 | 26.7 | 23.7 | 23.1 | |
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
11 NFL Draft picks: Donte Moncrief (2014), Senquez Golson (2015), Laremy Tunsil (2016), Laquon Treadwell (2016), Robert Nkemdiche (2016), Fahn Cooper (2016), Cody Core (2016), Evan Engram (2017) + 3 more
Followed Steve Roberts (2002–2010) · succeeded by Gus Malzahn (2012).
1 NFL Draft pick: Demario Davis (2012)
Was he good?
The data leans positive: every conclusive reading points the same way.
+11.3 pts at Ole Miss · #187 of 1290 · top quarterModel fit as of 2026-09-04.