Auburn is looking to flip a switch late into the season, having finally fired Hugh Freeze. Interim HC DJ Durkins is working desperately to save whatever there is left of the Tigers’ season. He’s already shaking things up by taking the path that should have been taken by Freeze. After he rolled out an offense that is one of the worst in program history, Durkin’s new comment will remind Freeze of this huge mistake.

Unlike the former coach, DJ Durkin is not on board with head coaches calling plays for teams. “I don’t know that it’s the best way to do it in the big scheme of things,” he told the media at a recent press conference. It’s the exact thing that Hugh Freeze adamantly held on to at Auburn, which ultimately cost him his job. It’s what led Billy Napier to be let go from Florida, and is also earning Steve Sarkisian bad rap at Texas’ downfall this season.

Durkin has corrected a key problem at offensive playcalling by making OC Derrick Nix the “sole” play caller of the unit. Before the season, Hugh Freeze went ahead with the damning decision of rolling out 3 playcallers in the offense, just like last year. Moreover, Freeze gave himself a veto power over offensive and defensive calls. Despite having more heads tasked with taking control of the offense, it just didn’t work out for the Tigers’ offense. Auburn once again ranks the worst in the SEC in passing offense – a reality Freeze already dealt with in his first season here.

Throughout the entirety of his Auburn tenure, Freeze continued to gut the offense. This unit continued to drop in scoring offense over this time. In 2025, the Tigers’ offense sits at No. 13. The former HC had no success with any of his Auburn quarterbacks. Jackson Arnold, who was looking for a break from his Oklahoma troubles here, got benched against Arkansas. Backup QB Ashton Daniels seemed to be a step in the right direction. But even with a new leader in the offense, Freeze couldn’t get any returns.

His playcalling led the Tigers to lodge only 3 points against a Kentucky defense that’s no good – that’s how bad things got. He flip-flopped between QBs against Kentucky, and still couldn’t get a hold of the offense. Those 3 points were because of a field goal that came in the 3 quarter. Freeze seemed to have developed a thing for letting it all down in the 4 quarter, which is something AD John Cohen couldn’t help but point out. The last two play calls against Texas A&M, for example, still gave the Tigers an extremely slim chance. But it only ended in Arnold taking a sack, when the ball could have been run.

Simply put, the offense has been outright bad under Hugh Freeze. Auburn’s offense has continued to tank despite having stellar players like Cam Coleman (a 5-star recruit), RBs Jeremiah Cobb and Eric Singleton Jr. Fingers have to be pointed when results as bad as Auburn’s become a cycle.

Hugh Freeze is the 6th Auburn HC fired for creating debilitating offenses

Hugh Freeze’s offensive disasters ended up ravaging the program through and through. Unfortunately for Auburn, Freeze already seemed to be part of an eerie trend associated with the program. Over the last 50 years, 7 Auburn HCs were fired – 5 of them produced Auburn’s worst offenses in history. Hugh Freeze now joins this group, creating the 6 such offense.

The worst ever came in 2012, under Gene Chizlik, at 10.1 points per game. Then comes Tommy Tuberville’s 2008 season at 11.6 points. He’s followed by Doug Barfield’s 1980 season saw Auburn at 14.5 points. Next is Terry Bowden’s 1998 season, finishing at 15.5 points. Pat Dye finished at 16.5 in 1992. Hugh Freeze’s 2025 sits at the middle, since the Kentucky offense dropped the scoring rate in conference play to 12.3.

It’ll be a mammoth task for DJ Durkins to even help Auburn keep its head above the water. Hugh Freeze spent more than 2 years here, and could still do nothing but produce losing seasons. But Durkin has thankfully attacked the one problem area that needed immediate care. He’s reduced the number of heads at the offense, and given control to someone who can zero in on it at the same time.