How does Hugh Freeze’s record at this stage compare to his Auburn predecessors?

Hugh Freeze's record through roughly a season and three-quarters at Auburn is nothing to brag about obviously, but how big a concern should it be?

Before the Tigers lost to Vanderbilt last week, much was made of the fact that Freeze's record at the time (9-12 overall, 4-9 in the SEC) was identical to that of Bryan Harsin, his predecessor. Harsin was fired on Halloween in 2022, after just 21 games, meaning he didn't get to coach in (and lose) a 22nd game the way Freeze did.

So we know Freeze's record (now 9-13, 4-10) is on par with Harsin's. But how does it compare with all the other Auburn coaches of the modern era?

Here's a look back, in reverse chronological order (records through first 22 overall games and first 14 SEC games of the coach's tenure at Auburn):

Bryan Harsin (2021-22)Overall record: 9-12

SEC record: 4-9

What happened next: Harsin never got to coach a 23rd game, obviously, but interim coach Cadillac Williams led the Tigers in a 39-33 loss at Mississippi State the following week. So if we credit (discredit?) Harsin with that loss, his record is identical to Freeze's at this stage. Harsin also deserves an extra dose of enmity for essentially running off quarterback Bo Nix, the son of two Auburn alums (a quarterback and a cheerleader, as a matter of fact) who grew up wanting nothing more than to play for the Tigers. Nix became a Heisman Trophy finalist at Oregon and is now starting for the NFL's Denver Broncos.

Gus Malzahn (2013-14)Overall record: 19-3

SEC record: 12-2

What happened next: Malzahn won the SEC championship and played for the national title in his debut season, and actually got off to a good start the following year at 7-1. Things fell apart after that, as the Tigers lost four of their final five games to finish 8-5. It never got as good again for Malzahn as it did in that first year-plus, though there were some high moments — an SEC title in 2017 and a shootout win over Alabama in 2019 that kept the Crimson Tide out of the College Football Playoff among them. Despite never having a losing season, Malzahn was fired after going 6-5 in COVID-shortened 2020. Auburn hasn't finished with a winning record since.

Gene Chizik (2009-10)Overall record: 17-5

SEC record: 9-5

What happened next: An unpopular hire at the time, Chizik went 8-5 — with three losses by a touchdown or less — in his debut season. The Tigers signed Cam Newton that offseason and the rest is history, as they went 13-0 and won the program's first national championship in 53 years in 2010. Newton, Nick Fairley and others left for the NFL after that season and Auburn slipped back to 8-5 in the 2011, including blowout losses to Alabama and Georgia. After Malzahn (then the Tigers' offensive coordinator) left to become head coach at Arkansas State in 2012, Auburn bottomed out and went winless in SEC play (and 3-9 overall). Chizik was fired the day after the Tigers were pummeled by Alabama 49-0 in the Iron Bowl.

Tommy Tuberville (1999-2000)Overall record: 14-8

SEC record: 6-8

What happened next: Tuberville's first team finished 5-6, but improved rapidly that offseason with the addition of running back Rudi Johnson, quarterback Daniel Cobb and others. The Tigers were well on their way to the SEC West championship by late in the 2000 season, and dealt Alabama an embarrassing 9-0 defeat in the first Iron Bowl played in Tuscaloosa in nearly 100 years. Tuberville took advantage of instability at Alabama to reel off six straight wins against the Crimson Tide from 2002-07, and posted an unbeaten record and an SEC title in 2004. But the situation deteriorated once Nick Saban arrived at Alabama, with Tuberville appearing to lack the recruiting energy to keep up with his relentless in-state rival. He was forced out after Auburn lost 36-0 in the 2008 Iron Bowl to finish 5-7.

Terry Bowden (1993-94)Overall record: 20-1-1

SEC record: 14-0

What happened next: Not even Malzahn got off to as good a start at Auburn as Bowden did (indeed, few coaches anywhere have). The son of coaching legend Bobby Bowden led an NCAA sanction-riddled program to an 11-0 record in 1993 and won his first nine games the following year before tying Georgia and losing a close game to Alabama. The Tigers won eight games each of the next two seasons before breaking through with 10 wins and an SEC West title in 1997, but Bowden's program fell apart by midway through the next season. After starting 1-5 in 1998, Bowden asked athletics director David Housel for assurances he would be retained for the following year. When no such promise came, Bowden resigned and the Tigers finished a 3-8 season under interim coach Bill Oliver. Still, Bowden's .731 winning percentage is second in Auburn history behind only program architect Mike Donahue, whose coaching career ended in 1922.

Pat Dye (1981-82)Overall record: 13-9

SEC record: 8-6

What happened next: Dye took over an Auburn program with a major inferiority complex and almost immediately breathed life back into it. The Tigers went just 5-6 his first year, but that included competitive losses against Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. His second Auburn team also had near-misses against Florida and Georgia before famously knocking off Paul "Bear" Bryant's final Alabama team in the Iron Bowl, winning 23-22 on the "Bo Over the Top" play to snap an eight-game losing streak vs. the Crimson Tide. Auburn went 11-1 and won the SEC title in 1983, finishing second nationally. Additional outright or shared SEC championships came in 1987, 1988 and 1989, with the latter year including a win in the first Iron Bowl played at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tigers slipped to 8-3-1 in 1990 (losing to Alabama for the first time in five years) and collapsed to 5-6 in 1991 as the Eric Ramsey "pay-for-play" scandal began to engulf the program. With his team sitting at 5-4-1 on the eve of the 1992 Iron Bowl, Dye announced his resignation. The Tigers lost the game 17-0 to eventual national champion Alabama, but Dye remained a program icon until his death in 2020.

Doug Barfield (1976-77)Overall record: 8-14

SEC record: 7-7

What happened next: Shug Jordan's hand-picked successor had a lot working against him, but it's pretty striking how similar his record is to Freeze's at this stage (and it was actually quite a bit better in SEC play). Auburn had lost three straight to Alabama when Barfield took over, and that streak would extend to eight in a row by the time he was ousted at the end of the 1980 season. Barfield also dealt with NCAA sanctions (some dating back to the Jordan era), which kept his two decent teams — 1978 and 1979 — out of bowl games. After Auburn went 5-6 in 1980, Barfield was fired with an exactly even record of 27-27-1. Auburn tried to make a run at former quarterback and assistant coach Vince Dooley, who had just coached Georgia to a national title. Dooley turned down his alma mater, however, and the Tigers wound up hiring Dye (which worked out OK). Barfield's tenure was also tarnished several years later when it was revealed that star running back James Brooks was illiterate and admitted to never going to class at Auburn, yet somehow emerged with a degree.

Ralph "Shug" Jordan (1951-52)Overall record: 9-13

SEC record: 4-10

What happened next: If you want to take the optimistic view, it's pretty striking that Jordan's overall and SEC records at the end of his second season were identical to where Freeze is now. Jordan, of course, went on to coach 25 years at Auburn, won a national championship in 1957 and very nearly a second one the following year. He retired with an overall record of 176-83-6 after the 1975 season, two years after Auburn re-named its stadium in his honor. It must be noted, however, that while Freeze inherited a mess at Auburn, Jordan took over a program that had won three games in the previous three years combined under coach Earl Brown (including an 0-10 record in 1950). And of course, there was no transfer portal and NIL back then either. Nevertheless, Jordan's second team was worse than his first one, slipping from 5-5 to 2-8 and winless in the SEC. He got things turned around pretty quickly the next year, going 7-3-1 and playing the Gator Bowl. Auburn was one of the best programs in the SEC by the end of the 1950s and after 1952 didn't have another losing season until 1966.

Here's the entire list in chart form:

So what to make of all this? It's certainly true that Harsin ran Auburn's program into the ground in a short time (though meddling boosters helped him along, as they have so many times in the school's history). And it's also true that other Auburn coaches — notably Jordan — were able to win at a high level after a bit of a "slow build" early in their tenures.

But then there are the cases of Dye, Tuberville and Chizik, whose teams very quickly got onto a championship track by the end of their second season. (Bowden and Malzahn essentially started out there).

Barfield is maybe the best comparison, though he had to deal with the late prime Bryant — who won two national championships and was in contention for two others during that period — at Alabama, whereas Freeze has a first-year coach at his arch-rival across the state. And Auburn football in the 1970s didn't have the benefit of the transfer portal, NIL (at least not in a legal sense) and access to a 12-team College Football Playoff.

Freeze almost certainly will get a third season to get the Auburn program headed in the right direction (or not), but patience is rightly running thin on The Plains.