Auburn Tigers need to move on from Hugh Freeze despite the one wildly strong excuse for his recent failures
Auburn Tigers have been absolutely screwed by officiating, but he still has to win SEC games
The Auburn Tigers season has quickly gone completely off the rails, again. Thanks to the failures of Hugh Freeze and his staff Auburn is now approaching it’s sixth season in a row with just six or fewer wins. This is coach Freeze’s third consecutive season kicking off SEC play 0-4, and the rumblings are roaring louder and louder that Auburn may be moving on to a new coach here sooner than later.
Yes, it’s true that Auburn has played four straight ranked opponents (all currently ranked 15th or better), and yes the Tigers have been absolutely screwed by the officials in multiple games. However, even with that last surprisingly strong excuse (which the SEC itself admits), it’s time for Auburn to move on. Unless coach Freeze pulls off an absolutely miraculous finish to this season there are no excuses strong enough to make up for the colossal failures to date.
Auburn Tigers vindicated by SEC referee suspension, but still need to fire Hugh Freeze
Auburn has had issues with officials all season long, especially in two games specifically. First it was the Oklahoma game, where Brent Venables had his wide receiver fake a substitution illegally, leading to what became the most important touchdown of the game in Auburn’s seven-point loss to the Sooners.
The SEC came out and issued a statement confirming that they should have called a penalty on the play, but it didn’t matter. The damage had been done. Auburn lost the game. Then just a few short weeks later, the Georgia mess happened.
First, Auburn lost a touchdown that would have extended an early lead to 17-0 over Georgia near the end of the first half, but instead it was ruled a fumble and recovery for Georgia. It was quite clearly a touchdown, as was echoed by the very folks calling the game on tv.
To make matters worse, Kirby Smart later got away with boldly lying in the face of officials saying he was just “clapping” when he was clearly calling for a timeout. There was no delay of game issued or timeout used for Georgia despite the ridiculous delay and dramatic show from the Bulldogs’ head coach.
As a result, and after further review, the SEC suspended referee Ken Williamson for the rest of the season this week. That’s the best that the SEC can do it at this point, but it was essentially them saying, “Yes, we know that we may have cost Auburn the game against Georgia”.
Still, despite those frustrating officiating calls that drastically influenced both the Oklahoma and Georgia games, it’s time for Hugh Freeze to go. Those infuriating referees may have blown it in some critical moments, but the rest of those games were maddening displays of incompetence across the board (with the exception of Auburn’s talented defense).
Auburn managed just 17 points against Oklahoma, so regardless of any penalties they did not deserve to win that game. Then against Georgia, the Auburn Tigers got shut out for the rest of the game after the “fumble” call. The team hasn’t scored more than 20 points in an SEC game this year. Jackson Arnold has taken more sacks than any quarterback in the country. Auburn ranks 118th in offensive yards per play. They rank 130th in yards per drop back. The team looks absolutely lost on offense most weeks for long stretches of time. It’s over. It’s time to move on.
Another Auburn head coach. Another unimaginable disappointment. It’s time for a hard reset on the program because the Tigers are clearly not “close”, regardless of how many times Hugh Freeze says they are.
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