The football gods still love me.

Those idiots on the Plains just can’t help themselves.

Auburn is finalizing a deal to hire Liberty coach Hugh Freeze, sources tell @SINow.

Freeze would return to the SEC, where in 2017 Ole Miss fired him amid NCAA and personal scandal. In 12 years as a college head coach, he’s had one losing season.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 28, 2022

They’re buying him because he notched two wins over Nick Saban.  (One less than Malzahn, by the way.)  His recruiting advantage then — paying players when that was against the rules — has vanished in the NIL era.  His overall record in the SEC in his five years with Ole Miss was 19-18, with winning records in 2014 (5-3) and in 2015 (6-2) and 8-11 overall in conference action in the others.

It’s quite the consolation prize for not getting Junior, that’s for sure.  Not that I’m complaining.

What’s the over/under on the number of times Auburn folks will reassure themselves that it’s worth it?

**********************************************************************

UPDATE:

The same Auburn boosters who yammered rumors about Bryan Harsin having an affair in an attempt to get him fired are now welcoming Hugh Freeze.

— Dayne Young (@dayneyoung) November 28, 2022

Of course they are.

The most Auburn thing Auburn could do isn’t to hire Junior as its next head football coach.

It’s this.

Sources: Auburn has been in discussion with Hugh Freeze for weeks about him becoming Auburn's next coach. They won't make a formal offer until after the Iron Bowl, but they've informally discussed contract and numbers with him for more than week.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 26, 2022

Really, it’s a match made in heaven, so to speak.

RT @CoachHughFreeze: If you have facts about a violation, email compliance@olemiss.edu. If not, please don't slander the young men

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 1, 2013

Blogging manna.  Make it happen, football gods.

If not, please don’t slander the young men.

There is something creepy about Hugh Freeze.

Why is the head football coach at Liberty University DMing me during and after my lawsuit with LU?

At almost midnight.

When I didn’t tag him.

& I haven’t responded to the other DMs he’s sent over the months

Publicly naming so he can see that I don’t want direct contact w/ him pic.twitter.com/K3icZAuops

— Chelsea Andrews (@chelsandrews) July 10, 2022

Aside from the stalking-like response itself, referring to the guy who oversaw the crap that went down at Baylor without doing anything to address it as “the most Jesus like leader I have” is… well, yeah, creepy.

Junior, embarrassed?

Inconceivable!

Oh, Ole Miss can delete the tweets, but the internet will ALWAYS have receipts. pic.twitter.com/LQgOXHjs0z

— Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) November 6, 2021

Okay, maybe not.

“I have no affiliation with the Ole Miss football Twitter site, even though it may sound strange, and I first learned about the tweets after my press conference when Keith Carter told me about them,” Kiffin told ESPN. “I’m completely embarrassed that anyone would put something out there like that making it look like it was a part of Ole Miss football. It was extremely disrespectful, bush league and classless, and I apologize, even though I had nothing to do with it, to Liberty and Hugh Freeze.”

Although I can’t help but wonder if deep down in places the Laner doesn’t talk about at parties, he gave a silent thumbs up.

By the way, it wasn’t that it was just making it look like it was a part of Ole Miss football, dude.  It came from Ole Miss football’s Twitter account.

ABC

Smartass pundit take:  just compare Richt’s first five years to Smart’s — they’re no different!

Georgia fan’s take (h/t):

UGA Recruiting to the moon imo pic.twitter.com/2qIwDUyRBA

— Conor "Big Game Boomer Enemy #1" McAnalytics (@ConorMcQ5) July 6, 2021

And that doesn’t even take into account the way the 2013 class disappeared.

For funsies, here are a couple more charts.

First a Georgia-Florida comparison:

Two programs recruiting on roughly equivalent levels,,,,, https://t.co/eXB91EvEiK pic.twitter.com/Xh98XwdcRU

— Conor "Big Game Boomer Enemy #1" McAnalytics (@ConorMcQ5) July 6, 2021

Roughly is doing some heavy lifting there.  It’s pretty impressive to see how Boom drove Florida’s recruiting after Corch into a ditch.  He built the gap.

Second, if this graph isn’t damning…

Obligatory "Hey I wonder when Ole Miss got good at cheating" graph pic.twitter.com/1tJ0Jhi5F8

— Conor "Big Game Boomer Enemy #1" McAnalytics (@ConorMcQ5) July 6, 2021

Never forget.

RT @CoachHughFreeze: If you have facts about a violation, email compliance@olemiss.edu. If not, please don't slander the young men

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 1, 2013

If you come at the king of the dipshits, you’d best not miss.

Shot.

Coastal Carolina is No. 3 in the Colley Matrix, an NCAA-recognized national champion selector.

Should the 11-0 Chanticleers claim a national title if they beat 9-1 Liberty tonight?

I asked Jamey Chadwell. He said he'd consider it if they win: https://t.co/OnRsS6rvRn

— Chris Vannini 😷 (@ChrisVannini) December 27, 2020

Chaser.

No. 23 Liberty outlasts No. 9 Coastal Carolina 37-34 in OT in Cure Bowl thriller. https://t.co/qRjo3HZHqx

— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) December 27, 2020

Leave the damned bottle on the bar.

Add Hugh Freeze to the group criticizing the CFP committee. Not happy that the 9-1 Flames weren't in the final CFP top 25. Flames were No. 23 in both polls.

"I wonder what people look at sometimes."

— Chris Vannini 😷 (@ChrisVannini) December 27, 2020

The most 2020 moment of 2020

Shot.

Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze has tested positive for COVID 19 the school announces.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 11, 2020

Chaser.

Contact tracing could get interesting here https://t.co/TD3Z8OVZpD

— Allen Kenney (@BlatantHomerism) December 11, 2020

Alex, I’ll take “it’s only a matter of time” for $200.

Hugh Freeze’s up-tempo/RPO system beat Bama twice and got Nick Saban to re-think his offensive philosophy. Now, that Freeze is piling up wins at #Liberty and beating ACC teams, how long before some AD tries to bring the ex #OleMiss coach back to Power 5? https://t.co/lXUxCl1Z8x

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) October 21, 2020

Seems to me the real question here isn’t “when”, though.  It’s “where”.

Phoning it in

Mark Richt’s football cuddle wasn’t the most surrealistic moment of the day yesterday.  Hands down that would have to go to Hugh Freeze, who chose to coach his Liberty team from a hospital bed.

When it’s Sunday but you’re too hung over to go to church pic.twitter.com/KRDktad2Rj

— Bunkie Perkins (@BunkiePerkins) September 1, 2019

That’s the look of a man whose afraid he’s gonna be wally pipped if he doesn’t show up for work.

This was… inspirational, I suppose.

pic.twitter.com/IbxWYfxOfz

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 1, 2019

Or maybe it was just a thank you for coaching his team to a shutout.

I’ll take “Get a burner phone” for $200, Alex.

Over at The Athletic, Hugh Freeze is asked ($$) the musical question “Is there anything you wish you’d done differently at Ole Miss that you take into this job?“.

(No, that wasn’t part of his answer, sadly.)