Hugh Freeze buyout at Auburn and the best replacements the Tigers could hire

Auburn fans have longed to hear it, but Hugh Freeze is no longer the coach of the Tigers. After an abysmal 10-3 loss in Week 10 to Kentucky, it felt like merely a formality that the program would move on from Freeze, and ESPN insider Pete Thamel confirmed all of the smoke on Sunday morning with the news that he, indeed, had been fired.

Freeze came to Auburn after a successful tenure with Liberty — after leaving Ole Miss previously in disgrace — and the hope for the Tigers was that he could reignite The Plains and get them back in the mix atop the SEC. But with a 6-16 record in the conference in his tenure, that was never even close to happening. There were signs coming into the season that Freeze might be on his last legs, and those turned out to be prescient.

When a coach of Freeze's stature at a program of Auburn's caliber is fired, though, there's always a lot to unpack. How much will Auburn have to pay in Freeze's buyout? What all led to the Tigers firing their head coach? And most importantly, who could Auburn hire to replace Hugh Freeze? Let's unpack it all with another Black Sunday claiming a coach's job in college football.

What is Hugh Freeze's buyout at Auburn?

Auburn will pay $15.8 million in buyout money with the firing coming on Nov. 2. That's certainly not a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things. However, considering that the college football world has already seen two $50+ million buyouts paid to James Franklin and Brian Kelly this season, Auburn forking over less than one-third of that to move on from Freeze is more than palatable.

The best news for Auburn, of course, is that the buyout isn't prohibitive for the program making big swings moving forward. But before you go into the future, it's always important to figure out why the program ended up at this point. Namely, it's important to diagnose why Freeze was fired in the first place.

Hugh Freeze's failures on offense pushed him out at Auburn

If there's one thing you can't fault Freeze for during his time at Auburn, it's been the overall talent acquisition. The Tigers have recruited at a high national level over the past two years, leading to the additions of potential stars like Cam Coleman, among many others. The problems with Freeze, however, resulted from that. Because not only did he not have the talent that he brought into the program living up to expectations, but it was a direct result of his quarterback misfires.

While it's overly simplistic to say that just the quarterback position doomed Freeze, it's also not entirely wrong in this instance. Prior to this season, Freeze went with the veteran presence of Payton Thorne at quarterback, and the results were middling at best. That, in itself, could've been passed off as a stopgap as he rebuilt the roster and program, but that also meant that Freeze would have to nail the addition of Thorne's successor.

Pretty decisively, he didn't do that. Auburn landed former 5-star recruit Jackson Arnold in the transfer portal, and it became clear quite immediately in the 2025 season that he wasn't the answer fans had hoped for. His limitations as a thrower thus limited the offense, the result was a 4-5 start to the season with Arnold being benched at times, and the defense ultimately being wasted.

So while there are certainly other nuances and cultural issues that could be discussed, the simplest way to talk about Freeze's shortcomings is to note that he whiffed on his quarterbacks. Had that not been the case or had the strategy even been different, you have to wonder if the results would've improved enough for Freeze to not have received his pink slip from Auburn.

But he did, and now the job at Auburn is to replace him. Luckily, the program has the clout to go after some huge names to do so.

Best Hugh Freeze replacements at Auburn

Brent Key (Georgia Tech head coach)

Perhaps the defining question of the coaching carousel right now is if Brent Key would leave his alma mater at Georgia Tech for a better job. That's not a guarantee in the slightest, especially with the fact that the Yellow Jackets have earned a hefty investment from the university and the administration, not to mention their run to compete atop the ACC. At the same time, though, Key's bonafides at this point might be too great for him to stick around in Atlanta.

The 47-year-old has led Georgia Tech to a 26-17 record across almost four seasons now, including an interim tenure in 2022. The Jackets have never had a losing record under Key, both overall and in conference play, and he's the driving force behind that. He has the personality to build a culture, and has also been an ace in procuring the right talent both on the field and on the sidelines since arriving with his current program.

Again, it's far from a guarantee that he'd even want to leave Georgia Tech. But if Auburn could persuade him to move, Key would be a home-run hire for the Tigers.

Kenny Dillingham (Arizona State head coach)

I'll admit, this is probably the pie-in-the-sky option for Auburn when it comes to Hugh Freeze replacements. Like Key, Kenny Dillingham is also at his alma mater at Arizona State. Also like Key, we've seen Dillingham rapidly orchestrate a masterful turnaround for the Sun Devils, most notably taking them on a run to a Big 12 title and a College Football Playoff berth just last season.

Dillingham established himself as one of the brightest offensive minds in the sport during his time as the Oregon offensive coordinator, and nothing we've seen at ASU to this point makes you think otherwise. He's also galvanized the Sun Devils administration and booster base in a way that should get Auburn fans salivating at the thought of what he could do at a program with far more resources.

That could be the selling point that the Tigers try to make if they want to pry Dillingham away, too. Has Arizona State already reached its ceiling? It's entirely possible. And while there's plenty of volatility at Auburn, the ceiling has long been higher than it has been in Tempe, which could force Dillingham to, at the very least, make a tough decision.

Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri head coach)

There's at least a chance that Eli Drinkwitz could be one of the hottest names in the coaching carousel if he so chooses to leave Mizzou. And Auburn would be hitting a home run if they could bring him back to the Tigers program, as Drinkwitz spent two seasons as a quality control coach with Auburn back in 2010-11.

Drink took the Missouri job after just one season — a 12-1 campaign — as Appalachian State's head coach. After three seasons hovering around .500, though, Drinkwitz elevated the program in a big way. They've reeled off back-to-back double-digit win seasons, and have started 6-2 in the 2025 season as well. More importantly, though, he's shown the ability to be a high-level recruiter on home turf, a terrific identifier of coaching talent, and a culture builder as well.

Auburn needs all of that in the wake of Freeze's tenure, and if they pony up the dough to make it enticing of him to leave Columbia, this might be the Tigers' best option to pursue.

Jon Sumrall (Tulane head coach)

For a while, the buzz appeared to be that Jon Sumrall was ultimately going to be Mark Stoops' successor at Kentucky. And while the job may still open in Lexington given their struggles over the past few seasons, the former UK linebacker may have actually outgrown his alma mater in terms of the jobs that he could be considered for, with Auburn obviously being part of that group.

At both Troy and Tulane, we know that Sumrall has a footprint in the southeast, in addition to a nose for talent and talent development. Just as important as that, he's been nothing but a winner thus far in his coaching career, accruing a 38-11 record across his three-plus seasons at multiple stops.

Auburn will certainly have to make a godfather type of offer if they identify Sumrall as "the guy", simply because of how in-demand he's likely to be in this coaching cycle. However, the track record that he's developed to this point suggests that doing so might well be worth it.