[Wvflame2013]

Social media and the ever turning media engine wrecks havoc to team unity.

[ALAFlamesFan]

The fact he owned up to the situation is his saving grace in that regard.

I don't know, Sly. It's pretty obvious they didn't believe him. At the very least his rep Jimmy Sexton has been talking and I don't think verbal semantics make things better. He preached that he would let Ian and his team know if he ever had interest in a job and they, perhaps naively, believed him. He has obviously had interest since this job came open last month. He has lost trust in the locker room. There is no coming back. If AU backs out we might need to pull and Auburn and pay him to go. His ego made this a mess. He had not been straight up honest.

[thepostman]

If this is how he explained things to his players then it is pretty clear why they had zero energy. Players can smell BS from a mile away. That trust he built with the the players is now gone. I'm not sure how one would even want him back. But this is LU.

[Baybird]

If he puts 3 games together at Auburn like the last 3 he’s had at LU, they’ll run him out of town in Year 1. Of course he’ll be a really rich guy at that point…

Freeze goes to Auburn and beats Alabama and Georgia but loses to Missouri, Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

[Tnobes]

So Hugh Freeze is back to being known as stripper coach to the SEC fan base and liberty is back to being irrelevant. What a sucky day

[Ill flame]

Agree to disagree.

But if he goes, I have full confidence in Ian to lead a terrific search.

This is why I'm not super concerned about it. I would've preferred to keep HF but we knew he wouldn't stay forever and we should be the top G5 job on the market. Whoever we replace him with will be solid.

[LU 57]

If Hugh Freeze leaves, who do we call? Mike London??

Uh, no, please…my kid is committed to play there next year…

[BuryYourDuke]

Guys…he gone.

[TH Spangler]

Three thoughts. How much does Auburn owe Liberty to buy out his contract?

Freeze will regret this move, soon.

And practically being forced from indy to CUSA didn't help.

[rtb72]

So our kids basically found out from news reports and confronts the coach before the game. His press conference brought me to wonder if he even squared with Ian and the administration. I mean...he's been talking to them for a few weeks I assume? Obviously they were "pursuing" him and he had "interest". Two elements he said he would be transparent about....so, along with our kids....was Ian blindsided?

[Purple Haize]

So our kids basically found out from news reports and confronts the coach before the game. His press conference brought me to wonder if he even squared with Ian and the administration. I mean...he's been talking to them for a few weeks I assume? Obviously they were "pursuing" him and he had "interest". Two elements he said he would be transparent about....so, along with our kids....was Ian blindsided?

He said he’s ‘transparent’. But that might have a different meaning for him than me. I’m pretty sure Ian wasn’t blindsided. 100% the players were. He even said in his press conference that the only reason he addressed it was because the PLAYERS asked him about it. Players who had seen countless media reports about it for weeks and days but NOTHING from Mr Transparency. Even now, instead of being ‘transparent’ and saying “yes, there is mutual interest p’ he simply says he hasn’t been ‘offered’ and he hasn’t ‘signed’ anything.

[thepostman]

Ian liking this tweet is interesting. Especially considering he rarely likes tweets not from official LU accounts.

[rtb72]

Ian liking this tweet is interesting. Especially considering he rarely likes tweets not from official LU accounts.

Wow. I was thinking that Ian was probably seeing the same thing I was in HF demeanor on the sideline and probably already knew how the kids found out. It would have been classic if Ian had went down to locker room at half and told Hugh to go on home.

[AATL]

This is an overreaction. Why tell the players you're in serious talks with another program before anything becomes official or before you even have an offer to evaluate? If it falls through, you've done a major disservice to the players in your locker room and have likely harmed the program for the future as recruits look elsewhere. The way it unfolded today is unfortunate for all involved (Hugh included, who likely just lost leverage in pursuing a better deal with Auburn), but I'm not sure I agree with the assumption that Freeze was trying to sneak out.

Losing a coach who catapulted the program forward sucks. Such is the nature of being anyone but a select few elite P5s. The program is in a great place overall and I am thankful that this is happening at the end of the year so the program isn't bleeding recruits amidst months of speculation.

[JK37]

Why tell the players you're in serious talks with another program before anything becomes official or before you even have an offer to evaluate?

Because they asked.

[Ill flame]

This is an overreaction. Why tell the players you're in serious talks with another program before anything becomes official or before you even have an offer to evaluate?

He's been promising for years that the players would be the first to know and he didn't uphold that promise. He shouldn't have made the promise if he was planning on waiting until after the deal was done. Very rarely does high profile deals not get leaked beforehand.

[stokesjokes]

This is an overreaction. Why tell the players you're in serious talks with another program before anything becomes official or before you even have an offer to evaluate? If it falls through, you've done a major disservice to the players in your locker room and have likely harmed the program for the future as recruits look elsewhere. The way it unfolded today is unfortunate for all involved (Hugh included, who likely just lost leverage in pursuing a better deal with Auburn), but I'm not sure I agree with the assumption that Freeze was trying to sneak out.

Losing a coach who catapulted the program forward sucks. Such is the nature of being anyone but a select few elite P5s. The program is in a great place overall and I am thankful that this is happening at the end of the year so the program isn't bleeding recruits amidst months of speculation.

I agree with you, I’m not mad that he didn’t tell the players sooner. I’m mad that he didn’t have them ready to go the past three weeks.

[Liberty22]

We’ll still bleed recruits, if not players like Salter, Dae Dae, Demario, etc.

[AATL]

Absolutely - some will leave. If Freeze signs a deal and leaves, I hope he doesn't go full-on Billy Napier and that the administration navigates a very quick transition to get a new face in front of the '23 and '24 recruits.

[Purple Haize]

This is an overreaction. Why tell the players you're in serious talks with another program before anything becomes official or before you even have an offer to evaluate?

He's been promising for years that the players would be the first to know and he didn't uphold that promise. He shouldn't have made the promise if he was planning on waiting until after the deal was done. Very rarely does high profile deals not get leaked beforehand.

He wasn’t even transparent when they asked. Why should he have been before hand?

This is a peak maybe at the type of culture he was (wasn’t) building

[Tothehoopyall1]

I’m trying to see this from both sides. I think the timing of everything is what makes this horrible for all involved. HF was more interested in Auburn than we realized. If Harsin is fired a week ago the mess over the last few weeks probably doesn’t happen. My guess is conversations with HF started quickly after Harsin was fired at Auburn. Unfortunately, our players didn’t get the coaching they needed for the last 3 weeks and it was awful to watch. At the same time players have to go play regardless. Every game is an opportunity for the players as much as anyone. Bottom line though is that the timing made this a tough situation. With 3 weeks of ongoing conversations happening HF began to see himself on the sidelines of an SEC school and the checkout process culminated with what we saw today. He did a great job as coach at LU, will do great things at Auburn, but the BEST days for LU are ahead of us.

[ALAFlamesFan]

Ian liking this tweet is interesting. Especially considering he rarely likes tweets not from official LU accounts.

Wow. I was thinking that Ian was probably seeing the same thing I was in HF demeanor on the sideline and probably already knew how the kids found out. It would have been classic if Ian had went down to locker room at half and told Hugh to go on home.

I actually am looking forward to Ian's comments once this is official. I have a lot of trust in his ability to keep us moving forward and up!

[Purple Haize]

I am 100% confident in Ian’s ability to get a good candidate

[flamesfilmguy]

Welcome to big time football. Part of the reason I was so against his hire in the first place was the possibility of this happening. Some tigers don’t, won’t or can’t change their stripes. (Pun intended) Maybe it’s because I’m in that world every day or maybe I’m too far removed from being in the Liberty bubble but it took me 4 years to come remotely close to trusting that guy had actually changed and turns out he hasn’t. I get it. I don’t like how it ended and it puts a sour taste in everyone’s mouth but this is what happens with big time football coaches. I get why people thought he changed. He talked a good game. I began to wonder after that locker room speech at Arkansas if he had gotten the SEC bug again. No matter, what’s done is done and honestly I’m grateful for the success we have had with him at the helm. We got him back to where he wanted to be and he rewarded us with the continued building of the program. You can argue that the last 3 games were counter productive but when we are winning CUSA championships in the next few years we will be fine. Just gotta hire the right guy to take over.

[Tnobes]

Absolutely - some will leave. If Freeze signs a deal and leaves, I hope he doesn't go full-on Billy Napier and that the administration navigates a very quick transition to get a new face in front of the '23 and '24 recruits.

Recruits that leave because of a coach show that they are no better than the coach at keeping a commitment and sticking to their word. Let's hope he recruited better young men than that