Auburn AD Tired of Being 'Close' as Tigers Begin Search for Hugh Freeze's Replacement

AUBURN, Ala.- Auburn Tigers athletic director John Cohen opened up Auburn football’s weekly press conference on Monday afternoon discussing why he made the decision on Sunday that Auburn fans have been asking for weeks: the firing of head coach Hugh Freeze.

“I know how it's been talked about how close we are right? I’m not gonna say that we’re close. Close doesn’t matter. Getting it done matters,” Cohen stated.

Since the start of SEC play this season, Auburn fans have heard the same "we're so close" message every week from Freeze. As Cohen stated, being close is not good enough for Auburn’s standards.

While Freeze kept insisting on that message with each loss, the message began to fall on deaf ears, and as the losses mounted, Freeze's job security lessened.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze was fired a day after the loss to Kentucky. | John Reed-Imagn Images

Auburn struggled offensively through Freeze’s entire tenure on the plains, a lot of games that were “close,” but the Auburn offense could not get the job done. Particularly this season, Auburn actually was “close” in all of their SEC matchups, but horrendous offensive playcalling by Freeze led to Auburn only scoring three points against a bottom four defense in the SEC, which was the final nail in the coffin.

Freeze's particular struggles in developing quarterbacks - and flip-flopping between Jackson Arnold and Ashton Daniels on Saturday - was just as egregious.

"I do believe we have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the football field," Cohen said. "It’s just pretty obvious that it's just not working. It’s not operating at a high level. And I'm probably taking a step further just by saying, gosh, if we have an average SEC offense right now, there's no telling what our record would be, and maybe I'm not standing up here in front of you right now."

However, Auburn's defense has been relatively elite the entire time of Freeze’s tenure. Freeze did not touch the Auburn defense. It has all been on his respective coordinators, which for the last season and a half has been DJ Durkin, who was named the interim shortly after Freeze's firing.

So far this season, Auburn is one of only three teams in the FBS that has held opponents to 24 points or less, the other teams being the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Indiana Hoosiers. Two of these teams are sitting at the top two rankings in the AP Poll, and the other has a 4-5 record.

“But I will say that we have an elite defense,” Cohen said.

While Freeze had half of the team figured out, the offense, which he had control of, and its miscues were his ultimate downfall. Cohen did not mince words when discussing that side of the ball.

“I will say that there are a lot of areas of the game in which we excel, but the offensive side has really hurt the production of this football team, and we’ve got to get that fixed. We have to," he said.

Hugh Freeze was particularly criticized for his development of Auburn Tigers quarterback Jackson Arnold. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It was also announced earlier today by Durkin that the offensive playcalling duties will be given to offensive coordinator Derrick Nix, while Durkin will still continue to call the defensive plays for Auburn.

"Now, is it fair to bring up DJ Durkin here and say, ‘Hey, fix our offense?' No, that’s not fair, but what we have done is we have given him the opportunity, especially with our staff and anyone else, to step forward and say this is going to be your program for the next three weeks," Cohen explained. "Do the things that you feel like need to be done internally for us to be more competitive on both sides of the football. And we have a lot of confidence that can happen."

Durkin has been given the keys to Auburn, and he has three opportunities to make his bid to be the next Auburn head coach, with one of those opportunities being this weekend against the offensive powerhouse Vanderbilt Commodores.

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