On Nov. 2, Auburn fired head football coach Hugh Freeze. This came a day after the Tigers lost to Kentucky 10-3. Freeze was in the middle of his third season as the head coach at Auburn with a record of 15-19, including a record of 4-5 this season. Freeze became the 11th head coach to be fired since the start of the 2025 season. This number seems excessive for a midseason stat.
Firing a coach midseason is not a rare occurrence in college football. This season, however, many of the biggest jobs in college football will now be open. The reasons for coaches getting fired have also depended on the individual school.
For example, Penn State University fired James Franklin on Oct. 12. Franklin had a career record of 104-45, including 64-36 in Big Ten conference play. Penn State was 3-3 this season when Franklin was fired following back-to-back losses to UCLA and Northwestern. Penn State cited that Franklin had not been meeting expectations on the field over the last couple of years. Penn State won two national championships in program history.
At LSU, Brian Kelly had a similar situation. In the middle of his third season, Kelly was fired by LSU despite having a record of 34-14 in his time there. However, he never won a conference championship or had an appearance in the College Football Playoff. The previous three head coaches: Nick Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron all won national championships in their tenures at LSU.
Some schools, such as UCLA, made changes at head coach because of the play on the field. Deshaun Foster was fired a couple games into his second season at UCLA with a record of 5-10 because administration felt that the football program was not improving. Freeze’s firing came from a similar situation after Auburn’s offense was at the bottom of the conference in terms of total yards and points scored.
One concern about the numerous coaching changes this season is the amount of money these coaches are still owed. Between every coach that has been released so far this season, $185 million dollars is owed. In an era of NIL where athletes are getting paid, it may become increasingly hard to pay coaches and athletes.
In some situations, like UCLA and Auburn, firing coaches seemed inevitable, but for PSU and LSU, the success on the field, albeit no championships, makes me ask if it was the right decision to let these coaches go.