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On Sunday, Auburn brought the Hugh Freeze Era to an end by kicking the head coach to the curb midway through his third season with the Tigers. However, some fans realized he’d be fired before the decision was officially announced after discovering he’d lost his tee time at the school’s private golf course.
Auburn poached Hugh Freeze from Liberty prior to the start of the 2023 college football season in the hopes he’d be able to help the program bounce back from Bryan Harsin’s underwhelming tenure as head coach. Unfortunately, that did not end up being the case.
The former Ole Miss skipper did not impress after heading back to the SEC, as the Tigers went 6-7 during his first season at the helm and weren’t even able to make a bowl with the 5-7 record they posted during his second.
He was firmly on the hot seat heading into 2025, and while it cooled down after they got off to a 3-0 start and squeaked into the Top 25, a loss to Oklahoma kicked off a four-game skid. The losing streak came to an end with a win over Arkansas, but the team fell to 4-5 on the year with a 10-3 loss to Kentucky on Saturday.
Freeze was subsequently fired with three games left on the schedule, and he was also denied the chance to get in one last round at the country club where he had a standing reservation on Sundays.
Auburn fans realized Hugh Freeze was getting fired after his tee time at the school’s golf course was canceled
Freeze caught a fair amount of heat over the summer for the amount of time he spent on the golf course while other schools were firmly outfoxing Auburn on the recruiting front (noted troll Lane Kiffin didn’t pass up the opportunity to get a jab in himself).
The head coach was able to leverage his position to work on his game at the Auburn University Club, the private track designed by Bill Bergin that opened up in 1999. Freeze had a standing tee time at 1:30 P.M. on Sundays, and according to one plugged-in Auburn insider, his name was always in that slot regardless of the outcome of a game the previous day.
However, that was not the case on November 2nd, as the insider in question noted Freeze’s name had disappeared from the tee sheet a few hours before his firing was announced.
BREAKING: The standing Sunday 1:30pm tee time held by Head Coach Hugh Freeze at the Auburn University Club has been CANCELLED.
We’ve attached screenshots of the tee sheet change. A shakeup on the plains is imminent. pic.twitter.com/kUQt92CJc3
— jack (@great_tweeter) November 2, 2025
The 56-year-old will now have plenty of time to work on his golf game, and will also have plenty of cash to drop on the hobby when you consider the school will pay him $15.8 million not to coach for them.