Auburn would have started the game against Missouri with hopes of revival. But what they got was another heartbreak in SEC football. Pressure that once seemed premature has swelled into a hot air ballon, stuck in a hurricane as frustrations with coach Hugh Freeze reach newer levels. Calls for his removal have sped up. While some bet on him to fail when he came in the Auburn backroom, some did defend him. But now even they seem to lose faith. One of his biggest supporters, Josh Pate has joined in the chorus demanding his head, going to the extent of naming his replacement.

The analyst talked about this in detail on the latest edition of his podcast, Josh Pate’s College Football Show. He said, “I believe Auburn’s going to end up moving on from Hugh Freeze.” Before this, he accepted losing the bet on whether Freeze would fail to SEC Mike. Fans and analysts have all lost their hopes of a Auburn revival as he continues trying to cover his shortcomings with excuses and calling his team out. He has been increasingly critical of his team and players mentality, all while saying things like, “this is what we signed up for in Auburn.” Josh Pate addressed these issues further down the podcast.

As he continued,” I’m listening to it and I’m thinking, don’t you control all this? The mentality of the team, it’s your team. It’s your organization. Does the attitude of a team and the mentality of a team and the roster not in an ideal world reflect that of its head coach?” Freeze’s own track record at Auburn makes the criticism hard to ignore. He has had three losing seasons with a record of 14-18 overall while being 5-14 in SEC play. At the same time, he has a rooster loaded with players of his own choosing. Even his bold proclamations made publicly has backfired while acting as fodder for the critics.

It shows how he holds others to a very high standard while masking his own failures behind blame game and gimmicks. This was talked about by Pate as he continued: “Hugh Freeze rolled into Atlanta for SEC media days and just flat out said, ‘The expectations for us, we should be expected to contend for the college football playoff.’ He said it voluntarily. I was sitting right there with Cubick. I said, ‘Wow, credit him for being honest about that, but man, is that going to get thrown back in his face if it goes sideways this year.” Those words have since come back to haunt him.

Auburn has dropped its first four SEC games, including Saturday’s double-OT loss to Missouri, leaving the Tigers 0–4 in conference play and 15th in SEC scoring offense at just 23.6 points per game. This is certainly not how a team challenging for playoff contention looks like. They won’t make the playoffs but would be lucky if they manage to win a few more games.

While the pressure mounts on the HC and the Tigers, Pate went on to suggest his replacement. It’s not surprising as Hugh Freeze is just a loss away from his departure from Auburn. He would certainly serve as a cautionary tale for others.

Jon Sumrall Emerges as the Ideal Auburn Candidate

While talking about possible replacements for Freeze, Pate confidently added, “What else we know is there’s a guy by the name of John Sumrall just sitting at Tulane. Who I think would take this job and who I think would kill it here.” Will he serve as the better choice for an Auburn programme fighting identity and major performance issues?

After he inherited a weaker roster at Troy in 2021, he took the Sun Belts to newer heights and success. Leading them to Conference and playoff glory. Then he moved on to Tulane and continued just where he left off at Troy. In his first year with Tulane, his defensive acumen and energy-driven culture propelled Tulane to a 4-1 start in the AAC.

Auburn’s current struggles, particularly on offense and in close-game situations. Come from inconsistent execution and a lack of mental toughness under pressure. Sumrall’s leadership style emphasizes accountability, demanding daily standards in practice that mirror game-day intensity. At Troy, he developed NFL talent on both sides of the ball. He quickly turned the Trojans into one of the best Group of Five programs in the country, winning 23 games and a pair of conference titles during his time there.

Turned previously overlooked recruits into impact players and instilled a “next-man-up” philosophy that fueled the Trojans’ late-season runs. These attributes make him the ideal choice to change the Tigers’ fortunes. Auburn is struggling mainly on the offensive front and close game situations due to this. Sumrall’s style of leadership of using every possible resource at his disposal to propel his team to greatness.