Copyright AL.com
Through wins and losses, successful seasons and disappointing ones, the crowd at Jordan-Hare Stadium hardly ever disappoints. Even for a night game between teams with a combined SEC record of 1-9, Auburn fans packed out their home stadium, creating a sea of navy pregame with the hope of seeing their Tigers pull off back-to-back wins. By the third quarter, Auburn was only down seven, but large chunks of the once full stadium were empty. What was once an ocean of blue shirts became littered with splotches of empty silver seats as apathy swept across the Plains. By the game’s end, the stadium was almost half-empty, and portions of the remaining crowd chanted “Fire Hugh” at Auburn’s embattled head coach, whose record had just dropped to 9-11 inside the stadium once known as being among the toughest for opposing teams to escape. Auburn football felt lifeless. The defense never lost a step, but the offense, an area Freeze long specialized in, had hit rock bottom. The Kentucky loss marked the end of a two-game stretch against two of the three worst defenses in the SEC. On 21 drives across the two contests, Auburn’s offense scored one touchdown. The offense had become so bad that students were leaving the stadium at halftime when the game was still tied. More fans filed out of the when Kentucky took a seven-point lead in the third quarter, showing just how little confidence was left in Freeze and his unit. It no longer mattered how many top 10 classes he’d signed. No one cared about the average star rating of Auburn’s three quarterbacks. Any hope of playing winning football was gone, and the lack of engagement from a once great crowd reflected that. Once that kind of apathy kicks in at a place like Auburn, change is inevitable. About 15 hours later, the campus was quiet. Gone was the noise of fans tailgating and enjoying themselves before another home game. Students were recovering from the weekend and parking lots up and down Biggio Drive were mostly empty. As the faint noise of students playing soccer and other sports on the adjacent intramural fields rang out in the background, activity was beginning the parking lot of the Woltosz Football Performance Center. The funeral procession for the Hugh Freeze era of Auburn was underway, but instead of black SUVs and a hearse, a line of muscle cars, pickup trucks and other flashy vehicles made their way toward Biggio Drive, cramming into the tight parking lot. Eventually, TV crews showed up and camped out by the entrance. A couple police officers came to stand by the entrance players were using. A few fans even gathered near the building to try and get a glimpse of what was going on. Players filed into the building shortly before 1 p.m. to attend a team meeting after the news had broken. Freeze, who arrived at Auburn following the 2022 season, was no longer their head coach. The scene for the next couple hours wasn’t anything overly dramatic. There was no celebrating, but not much gloom either. As players made their way into the building, it almost seemed like a normal day. As they left, the mood could best be described as understanding. Everyone involved knew where things stood. Even after the Kentucky loss, when fans were calling for their head coach to be fired, many players disagreed, but could hardly fault them. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to give them something to cheer for and win here,” said senior tight end Brandon Frazier. “I understand both sides. But, yeah, it was a little upsetting.” Freeze wasn’t necessarily unpopular with the team, but the players could see just as well as the fans that progress wasn’t being made. To some, a change might have even created a sense of relief. Senior tight end Tate Johnson spoke with a small group of reporters after the team meeting. He wasn’t happy to see Freeze lose his job, but like many of the others he understood. Having gone through the firings of Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin, a situation like this isn’t new to him. Despite all of the emotions that another change could bring, he reflected on the positive impact it could have on the season. “We talked about it in the team meeting with Coach [DJ] Durkin, like the only thing that this is gonna do is just bring us together,” Johnson said. “Durkin is one hell of a motivator, so I think that we’re going to go out there and give it our best effort, for sure.” The lightheartedness that could be sensed around the building might have stemmed from an excitement to play for Durkin, who was named interim head coach. Through all of Auburn’s issues this season, hardly any of them have been on his side of the ball. Auburn’s defense has kept the Tigers in every game, and many players took to social media after Durkin assumed interim head coaching duties. That same excitement was shown by some of the defensive players outside the building Sunday afternoon. One player said practices would be “good on good all the time.” Another said with a smile that he’s “confident,” despite Freeze’s dismissal. For a while after the meeting was over one group of close to a dozen players, mostly underclassmen, hung out near the front of the building talking and joking with each other. Deuce Knight, one of the faces of the freshman class, was all smiles as he left, even shaking hands with each of the reporters assembled outside. Durkin won’t speak publicly until his scheduled news conference on Monday afternoon. Until then, it’s hard to know what he might change or implement as the interim. If nothing else, the players seem excited to play for him. For a team with nothing to lose and Auburn’s talent, that shouldn’t be ignored ahead of the Tigers’ final three games this season.
