Auburn just lost its last, best reason to have patience with Hugh Freeze

If Hugh Freeze spent less time on the links and more time in prospective recruits' living rooms, we would not be having this problem. Love him or hate him, Freeze is a noted golf guy. We all know that guy, and he is probably in your friend group. When the sun is out, he is trying to get a quick nine in. The worst part in all this is he is never there when you need him the most because he loves golf more.

This is very on-par (pun intended) for one of the least trustworthy coaches in the Power Four. He was ousted at Ole Miss for scandalous reasons before re-inventing himself as a new man at Liberty. Stop me if you have heard this one before! Auburn is not beneath hiring one slimeball after another because the only thing that matters is winning games. Well, is Freeze winning down on The Plains?

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin made it a point to troll Freeze for winning on the links this summer.

This, in turn, ruffled some feathers with the ineffable Paul Finebaum of ESPN. He went on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on 94.5 JOX down in Birmingham on Monday to explain why this is such a major issue for Auburn and everyone involved. Keep in mind that Cubelic is a former center at Auburn, and knows all too well what the standard of being excellence down on The Plains is all about.

Finebaum thinks the optics are terrible when it comes to Freeze being distracted by his golf game.

“The one place I wouldn’t be in public right now is a golf course. I’m all for enjoying yourself. We all do it. We all have fun, especially this time of the year. When you subject yourself to a picture and Lane Kiffin can troll you in a nanosecond, that’s a disaster, and that’s really where they are right now.”

Freeze logged 10 rounds of golf in the first 24 days of June. Auburn lost four recruits over that span.

Hugh Freeze is one more bad season away from being let go at Auburn

In Freeze's first two years at Auburn, he has gone a combined 11-14 overall and 5-11 in SEC play. The Tigers failed to reach a bowl game last year, as one of only three SEC teams that did not get to six wins. He regularly eight or more games in a season at his three previous head-coaching stops at Liberty, Ole Miss and Arkansas State. Freeze was hired to win and make a difference in recruitment.

Finebaum followed up his initial comment by saying it is time for Auburn to stop blaming Bryan Harsin.

“When I was in Auburn during the season, I got the song and dance from (Auburn AD) John Cohen about what they inherited. OK, I bought it, but that’s over now. Hugh Freeze has had a couple of seasons, the recruiting looked to be on fire, and now it doesn’t, so quit going back and blaming everything on Bryan Harsin."

Like Freeze, Harsin had won everywhere before, including a one-year run of his own at Arkansas State. He was a fish out of water in the SEC. Alan Greene's big plans for him as head coach completely backfired, as Harsin was out in his second season. We are talking about one of the 15 best programs in college football history, one where you can regularly contend for national titles.

Instead, we have been served a decade of disaster in Auburn. No, it does not help that their three biggest rivals in Alabama, Georgia and LSU have all won the College Football Playoff before Auburn even made the field. That being said, money is never going to be the issue. You have YellaWood and Tim Cook is a proud alumnus. Look no further than how tremendous the men's basketball team is.

What I am getting at is football is arguably the last sport you can get by while mailing it in. I am always in favor of people taking some time off to rest and recuperate. I am doing that this time tomorrow for a week. That being said, I write sports commentary for a living, and Freeze coaches an SEC blue-blood. While I am good with one of my biggest rivals being down, Auburn being bad is not ideal for us.

Ultimately, it is all going to come down to how Auburn navigates another tough SEC schedule. Every SEC road game becomes a home game this year, and vice versa. That means you get Alabama and Georgia at Jordan-Hare. You have to take advantage. More importantly, I do not think Freeze can afford to lose other notable games such as at Baylor, at Oklahoma, at Texas A&M or vs. Missouri.

If Auburn fell to Vanderbilt to be 4-6 on the year, I would fire Freeze on the spot, no questions asked.