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After Hugh Freeze was fired from his head coaching position at Auburn on Sunday, he released a long statement, expressing his gratitude and appreciation toward the people at Auburn. The statement was positive, despite Freeze losing his job after going 15-19 through 34 games in charge. One day later, Freeze’s daughter, Madison, posted a long video to TikTok explaining her side of things and how she was feeling after the decision. In the video, she talked about wanting to “show the reality of what many families are walking through right now.” She even made points about the situation being difficult despite her father’s buyout of $15.8 million. “People can say what they want about money,” Madison said. “Not enough money that can make you feel like this was worth it or we wanted this to happen.” She also seemed to directly express some disappointment in the decision. “We came here hoping to restore a program and we were promised four years,” Madison said, “and that didn’t happen.” Hugh Freeze was fired nine games into his third season as Auburn’s head coach. At the time of his firing, he held a 15-19 record overall, 6-16 record against SEC opponents, 9-11 record at home and 1-12 record against teams ranked in the AP Top 25. “I get that people didn’t see the results that they wanted in three years, but we all knew that this was gonna be much longer than a three-year rebuild,” Madison said. “This industry is very tough.” In the video, Madison said she hurts for her father who, “loved the people in that building and is devastated that they’ll carry on without him.” Defensive coordinator DJ Durkin will serve as Auburn’s interim head coach. One point she made throughout the video was how tough a firing is for the family of the coach. In making that point, she used herself as an example. “I think sometimes there’s just this misconstrued vision of what reality actually is for families like this and it is hard, it is not fun,” Madison said. “I have two presentations this week. I don’t, like I’m in a daze, I don’t know how to stand up in front of people and present.” Another talking point was her father’s health, which she said, “deteriorated over this.” As she mentioned that, there was text at the bottom of the video that read, “As y’all boo him out the stadium,” with an upside-down smiler face emoji. Hugh Freeze was diagnosed with an early, low-aggressive form of prostate cancer in February, and initially opted against having surgery to have it removed. "My wife has me taking all kinds of natural things that supposedly may cure prostate cancer," Hugh Freeze said in July. “We hope it does and we’ll recheck it in January to see where things are.” Madison said now that he’s been fired, “there’s a relief of my dad finally gets to have the surgeries that he needs, and when those are scheduled, he’s gonna get healthy.” Toward the end of the video, she sent some criticism toward Auburn and the community “We loved Auburn, and the second we got here, everybody was very adamant that if you love Auburn, it will love you back,” Madison said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for us.” She also said, “We don’t wish bad upon them, but we do hope that they turn to the lord and find Jesus.” The video was criticized by many Auburn fans in the comments, with one calling it “tone deaf” and others criticizing her for voicing her complaints when the buyout is as large as it is. In response to those comments, Madison made a follow-up video saying she didn’t intend to show a lack of gratitude or to “be insensitive to problems that other people are facing.” In that video, she mentioned how she’s experienced her father being fired without a buyout, something she called a “much harder situation.” “There are many families, whether y’all want to believe that or not, that are walking through this right now,” Madison said. “There are multiple people who have to walk through this, and a lot of them don’t get paid. So, very grateful to stand where we stand. “So, yes, I came on here to show the reality of it, because whether you’re getting paid or not, it is really hard to hear things about you and your family that are most of the time, simply not true, and secondly, hurtful. Money doesn’t matter in this situation. It’s the fact that my heart goes out to those people who are, who have families.” That response didn’t go over particularly well in the comments either, but as of Tuesday afternoon, it’s the only response Madison Freeze has made to the original video.
