Hugh Freeze offers plea for patience to Auburn fans after flurry of 'fire Hugh' chants during Kentucky loss

Hugh Freeze wants more time at Auburn, but said he understands frustrations following Saturday night's 10-3 home loss to Kentucky, which featured a chorus of "Fire Hugh" chants throughout the contest. One of the SEC's worst offenses hit a new level of anemia after Kentucky sacked Auburn quarterback Ashton Daniels seven times during his first start since transferring from Stanford.

Fans had seen enough by midway through the second half when Freeze's decision to bench Jackson Arnold in favor of Daniels resulted in three points and no explosive plays.

"I wish I could ask for patience, but that's not really something people want to give in this day and time, but I understand that," Freeze said. "I just know we're so dang close and if we had a few   things go our way earlier in the year, we're looking at a whole different deal. But it didn't and that's life. And that's the game of football and it teaches us a lot of great things and a lot of tough things. We'll get up and go get ready for the next one.

"I'd love for their patience. But I understand that you're probably not getting patience from them, because they want to see a better product on the field and so do I. So, I understand it."

The Tigers lost five of their last six games and dropped to 1-5 this season in SEC play.

Daniels threw for 59 yards and ran for 57 more in his first SEC start before Arnold briefly replaced him and went 2-of-3 passing for 15 yards. 

The capacity crowd inside Jordan-Hare, once again, went home angry with their head coach.

"My job is to get this team ready to play and win games and we have failed to do that this year, and it's frustrating," Freeze said. "I still believe we're really close and I know that team plays hard for this university. It's sickening we haven't delivered. No one wants to do that more than I. My family loves it. Our staff loves it. but at the end of the day, I'm frustrated too. I get it.

"We all know that when we sign u p for this. We accept what comes with it, but I love what we're doing here. We haven't gotten the results and that's frustrating."

Auburn has not won consecutive games in SEC play since the Freeze's first season in 2023. The Tigers previously won 19 of their last 20 matchups with the Wildcats entering Week 10's primetime affair.

Auburn athletic director John Cohen failed to give a ringing endorsement of Freeze when given the opportunity amid earlier-season negative trends. Cohen said it was "not my expectation at this point" to make a coaching change, but added that he'll "never say never" and wanted to see how the rest of the campaign unfolded.

"I don't know if I'm going to walk outside and my car is going to start or not, I think it is," Cohen said. "I have an expectation it will. But if my car doesn't start enough, then I will evaluate that and make decisions about my car. But that's not my expectation at this point about our football program."

There are already three SEC jobs open this cycle — Arkansas, Florida and LSU — and others that could become vacant.