Are we getting into Auburn firing territory?

On Sunday Penn State fired James Franklin, owing him $41m lovely green notes to make him go away.

Before that, Arkansas had bombed out Sam Pittman, but here was the difference between the two: The Razorbacks had Bobby Petrino in place to take the reigns, like him or hate him.

Immediately after Franklin was fired, there was a roar from The Plains. It was the sound of Auburn fans.

In one voice, they yelled: “GET RID OF GODDAMN HUGH FREEZE!”

Our favorite escort phonecaller hasn’t taken the team forward since Bryan Harsin was kicked to the kerb. In fact, he’s continued the team’s losing tradition by posting two straight losing seasons and is on course for another feckless one.

The problem for Freeze is not his recruiting and his portal ‘gets’. Cam Coleman, one of the Premier WRs in college football, came to Auburn when every other program in the country (outside of Ohio State) after decomitting from Texas A&M. He had a portal ranking of 7th, and people were excited about how he might resurrect the career of former Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold.

Well, the problem with Freeze is that the football’s boring, and the winning attitude’s not there.

After losing to Georgia last week, it was obvious that as soon as Auburn took a body blow by fumbling the ball on the goal-line (whether it was a fumble or not is another question), then they fell apart. They conceded two 15 yard penalties en route to Georgia hitting a last-gasp field goal at the end of the first half, and they only put up 40 yards in the second half. Freeze said: ““The second half didn’t feel like it had the same energy…This was another thing, what I mean by us not believing — really believing — you’re going to win the football game.”

Dude, who’s job is it to get the team together after a kick in the balls, give them a halftime pep-talk and get them back on the hoss? Yes, that would be you, Hugh.

You think Florida is undisciplined? Boy, doesn’t Auburn say ‘Hold my beer’. THE TIGERS RANK SECOND-TO-LAST IN PENALTIES PER GAME, AND AVERAGE PENALTIES PER GAME. For Chrissake, I’ve seen more discipline from a local jail 7-on-7.

The Jackson Arnold situation is great when it’s going well, but Freeze hasn’t managed to sort out the mental side, where Arnold seems to have lived all of his career. Nor did Freeze help throw money at offensive linesmen, because the team is ranked 132nd out of 134 in sacks allowed.

It’s a shitshow.

Auburn fans want blood, and they want it now. After going 6-7 in 2023 (3-5 SEC) and 5-7 last year (2-6), the Barners suddenly find themselves on another end of a losing SEC season, a losing total season, and missing a bowl game.

THE GUS BUS

Gus Malzahn was put into place after Gene Chizik was booted after his one losing season, and took the Tigers to a BCS Championship game in his first season.

Malzahn then went 63-35 as head coach on The Plains, and was fired midway through the 2020 season, despite posting a respectable 6-5 season (6-4 SEC).

After Malzahn came Bryan Harsin, which was an unmitigated disaster, and the Hugh Freeze one looks like it too.

Auburn AD John Cohen didn’t exactly guarantee Freeze’s just security in a conversation with AL.com, saying: “I don’t know if I’m going to walk outside and my car is going to start or not, I think it is. I have an expectation it will. But if my car doesn’t start enough, then I will evaluate that and make decisions about my car. But that’s not my expectation at this point about our football program.”

For me, that says: “We’re terrible, and he’s Dead Man Walking”.

Freeze’s buyout would be $15.4m, by the way, which is pretty cheap compared to the $21.45m they paid out to Gus and the $15.4m they put in Harsin’s pocket.

I mean, they could do worse than get Malzahn back, who’s offense is on fire, putting up 444.3 yards per game in the ACC — despite losing 3 games and its chances of making the play-offs.

Auburn had better get their next one spot-on, or there will be more pain on The Plains.