Hugh Freeze

Danny Hugh Freeze Jr. (born September 27, 1969) is an American college football coach. He most recently served as the head coach for Auburn University. Freeze was a successful high school football coach at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis, Tennessee, where he coached Michael Oher and Greg Hardy. He served as the head football coach at Lambuth University from 2008 to 2009, Arkansas State University in 2011, the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) from 2012 to 2016, and Liberty University from 2018 to 2022. He served as Auburn's head coach from 2023 to 2025, when he was fired mid-season after compiling the worst three-year start for a head coach at the school in 70 years. Under Freeze, the Ole Miss football program committed various recruiting and academic violations that figured in the NCAA's decision to expunge 27 of Freeze's wins and ban the team from post-season play for two years. After university officials attempted to paint Freeze's predecessor Houston Nutt as the main culprit, they were sued for defamation and they subsequently issued a public apology. The team's star quarterback and other players told NCAA officials that Freeze lied to them about the charges while he recruited them. Freeze resigned from Ole Miss in 2017 after officials discovered that he had used a university cell phone to call escort services at least a dozen times over 33 months.