Hugh Freeze was hired by Auburn to be the Tigers’ head football coach last week, a decision came under fire quickly.
The move to hire Freeze came under heavy scrutiny from many places. Freeze’s past misgivings aren’t just about NCAA violations, so understandably there was much to be concerned about. Especially considering Freeze relinquished control of his social media accounts. Not exactly the best way to suggest things are okay.
Auburn will go forward with Freeze despite those concerns and an update on that situation suggests they’ve dug their heels in pretty good as well.
According to Sports Illustrated, Auburn recently e-mailed their fans about the concerns after they peppered both university president Chris Roberts and athletics director John Cohen’s inboxes.
Richard Johnson wrote, “In emails obtained Monday by Sports Illustrated, Auburn has responded to these concerned, building on its public defense of the hire in last week’s press conference introducing Freeze as coach. The school sent out emails attributed to Roberts in rolling responses throughout Monday.”
The emails indicated there were reviews on Freeze’s history. They read, “Athletics Director John Chen and his staff reviewed the personal and professional history of each candidate, which included a detailed evaluation of documents and candid conversations with men and women with direct knowledge of those candidates.”
Auburn also promised to acknowledge any wrongdoings if they have any shortcomings in the hire’s aftermath, which is certainly one way to handle things.
The decision to hire Freeze likely won’t be one that fans forget about or let them off the hook on. A public defense on the email front might not be the way to downplay issues either.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022