Mississippi head coach Hugh Freeze, left, and Alabama head coach Nick Saban shake hands before an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016 in Oxford, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)AP
This Saturday the Alabama Crimson Tide will travel to Auburn, AL for the 88th edition of the Iron Bowl; the storied rivalry many consider to be the best in all of sports. The Tide will enter Auburn on a 9 game win streak overall and on a 3 game win streak in the Iron Bowl and will be looking to stay hot leading into the SEC Championship Game vs Georgia in Atlanta next week and keep a potential bid at the College Football playoff alive. Standing across on the Auburn sideline will be a familiar foe for Saban that he has not seen in 7 years, Coach Hugh Freeze, who will be leading the 6-5 Auburn Tigers into his first Iron Bowl as head coach on the plains.
History of Freeze vs Saban; one of the GOAT’s greatest foes
Hugh Freeze and Nick Saban have met 5 times, Saban holds a 3-2 lead in those 5 meetings, but Freeze stands today as one of the most successful head coaches in the nation vs Saban during his tenure at Alabama. Freeze is one of only 3 active head coaches with multiple wins vs Saban at Alabama (Gus Malzahn and Dabo Swinney being the other 2), Freeze led Ole Miss to a 23-17 victory in Oxford vs the Tide in 2014 and followed that up with a thrilling 43-37 win in Tuscaloosa in 2015 led by QB Chad Kelly. The Tide returned to Oxford in 2016 where Freeze and Ole Miss gave Alabama all they could handle including jumping out to an early 24-3 lead and putting the Tide on the ropes. Alabama ended up prevailing that day 48-43 and until this upcoming weekend, that stands as the last meeting between the 2 coaches.
2 men who despite their rivalry remain friends.
When Hugh Freeze’s tenure at Ole Miss came to a tumultuous end following the 2016 season, Saban remained one of his rivals top supporters. Prior to the 2018 season, Saban tried to hire Freeze to run his offense at Alabama and replace the departing Brian Daboll, who left after the 2017 National Championship. Reports for years have stated that this hire was torpedoed by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey who was not ready to have Freeze back a part of the SEC after his ugly exit at Ole Miss. Freeze has stated multiple times over the years that he and Saban remain good friends to this day and credits Saban for always supporting him through his ups and downs. Freeze would go on to accept the head coaching job at Liberty University prior to the 2019 and would have a very successful four year tenure in Lynchburg as head coach of the Flames.
Freeze searching for a signature win in year 1 at Auburn.
Freeze’s first season on the plains of Auburn have not been without trials and tribulations. After a 3-0 start in non-conference play, the Tigers lost 4 games in a row to fall to 3-4 and 0-4 in SEC play. Freeze knew he inherited a project and a depleted roster at Auburn that would take multiple years to rebuild and this showed. On October 28th, Freeze was finally able to secure his first SEC win at Auburn; a 27-13 win at home vs Mississippi State and would follow that off by ripping off two more SEC wins a row on the road at Vanderbilt and Arkansas to improve to 6-4 and get bowl eligible. Things would hit a huge road block this past weekend though as Freeze and Auburn suffered an embarrassing 31-10 loss at home vs New Mexico State to fall to 6-5 on the season leading into the Iron Bowl. As frustrating as the season has been for the Tigers and their fans though, everybody knows a win against Alabama cures all, and rest assured Freeze is well aware of what an Iron Bowl win vs Saban and Alabama in year one at Auburn would mean.
When the ball kicks off, does Freeze’s history vs Saban matter?
As we talked earlier in this article and went over Freeze’s history vs Saban at Alabama, that leads many to wonder if Freeze still has the tools to crack Coach Saban’s code. This was the reason many Auburn fans and members of the university and media were thrilled to welcome Freeze as head coach; to hire a guy with the pedigree and a résumé that includes 2 wins over Saban is monumental at Auburn because every year no matter what; when Auburn and Alabama play, that’s the most important game of the season. I had the chance to ask Coach Freeze last Thursday during his weekly Tiger Talk appearance at Baumhower’s Victory Grill in Auburn if his past vs Saban is still important now despite the 7 year layoff of the 2 coaches facing off. Freeze said as follows
“As far as the years I played them, Kirby (Smart) was the DC until the last year, so I had a pretty good pulse on who they were and what they were. Now that (Kevin) Steele is there, I’m not sure and I haven’t watched enough to know if what I used to do will still give them problems or not, but hopefully we can find something to give them some headaches this year”
College football is an ever changing game, and Freeze and Saban have both learned so much and grown so much as coaches in the last 7 years. Sometimes a coach just has another coaches number though, and everybody at Auburn is hoping that’s still the case with Freeze and Saban. This Saturday at 3:30 we will learn a lot about if to this day Freeze still has the blueprint to defeat Coach Saban and get what would be a statement, program building win for the Tigers
