re: Right now, would you trade Freeze for....

I think it’s lost on people just how bad Auburn was following Harsin.

We had maybe 20 D1 quality players rostered when Hugh was hired.

Harsin is a good example of just how bad it is to have a catastrophic recruiting year, imo. The after effects are very bad.

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All of them make the same, or considerbly more, than Freeze. None of them walked into a situation that closely resembled a death penalty team, like Freeze did. But most importantly, which one of the highly paid coaches, 3 years into the job, has a higher recruiting class than Auburn?

Of the 3, Norvell has had the most success, yet he's the one most likely to be fired first. None of them inherited the shitshow like the one that Harsin left behind. My God, Robbie Ashford and TJ Finely were battling for starting QB when Freeze was hired!

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As absurd as it sounds, Billy Napier has been considerably better on the field than Freeze has been so far. He actually has multiple legitimate wins:

Year 1: Beat #7 ranked Utah, won 3 SEC games
Year 2: Beat #11 ranked Tennessee, won 3 SEC games
Year 3: Beat #22 ranked LSU, won 3 SEC games (with 1 more to go)

If you compare the first two seasons (since Freeze hasn't played year three yet) that is 2 wins vs. ranked teams to 0, and 6 SEC wins to 4.

Regardless of what you want to say about the alleged "death penalty" that Freeze inherited (which is exaggerated - his team last year had ~4 defensive players that were drafted into the NFL plus Jarquez, and the transfer portal meant that neither Ashford nor Finley was his QB) you will find that historically successful SEC coaches will find a way to win at least one signature game (against a team better than their own) by the end of year two.

If you look at Florida this year, they really have no "bad losses". Their losses have been to Miami, A&M, Tennessee, UGA, and Texas. These are all teams that are clearly better than them. Those 4 teams have a combined 7 losses on the season.

Also, you guys realize that Freeze's alleged "death penalty" roster would have finished 7-6 last year had the defense not lost a won game vs. Bama on an absurd blunder, right? shite, they could have won 8 games had they batted the ball down vs. Bama and showed up to play vs. NMSU which was a drastically inferior team talent-wise. Freeze's coaching lost that game, not Harsin's leftover players.

The whole "he inherited a death penalty" spin makes even less sense when you further consider that Harsin's leftovers are on pace to finish with 2 more games than Freeze will win this year. So did Freeze inherit a death penalty, and somehow found a way to make it worse on the field despite the fact that he has been recruiting "star talent"?

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Blah blah blah the team was so bad, it took a 4th and 30 flop to lose to Saban in his last Iron Bowl. Okay man.

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IMO that’s a credit to Freeze.

The roster was jack shite and he had it a hair’s breadth from beating big bad Bama.

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I think it’s lost on people just how bad Auburn was following Harsin.

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Bear Bryant went 1-9 in his first year at ATM. Not much better his 2nd. Think ATM wishes they could have held on to him? Short sighted fans are the reason why the saying exists "the fans favorite player is the backup QB".

Most fans that have the inability to see the whole picture. They just demand instant results without having the insight of how to build. Bezos didn't turn a profit with Amazon for a long time. A whole lot of naysayers predicted his demise. His ex-wife is EXTREMELY rich today. We are actually bitching, back and forth, about the success of a coach who hasn't even completed his 2nd full recruiting class. Let that sink in while understanding that Robbie Ashford was our best QB when Freeze accepted the job. I cannot even think of who our best WR was then. Don't even get me started on offensive lineman.

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So did Freeze inherit a death penalty, and somehow found a way to make it worse on the field despite the fact that he has been recruiting "star talent"?

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Ashford and Finely, our two top QBs are still playing college football. Where are they now, and how are they doing? That's the epitome of what Freeze walked into.

Do you really think Freeze was the 1st hire choice? He was the only one worth a damn, willing to take the job after seeing what was in the locker room!

Listen man, I’ve turned a new leaf. I want Hugh to succeed.

But don’t tell me that wanting improvement 10 games into season 2 is instant gratification. Come on!

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Let that sink in while understanding that Robbie Ashford was our best QB when Freeze accepted the job.

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My only gripe about Freeze so far is, Ashford was still the best QB in 2023 too. And then, Freeze decided to run it back again with the QB that’s worse. So many QBs in the portal last cycle that are playing well this season.