Why Hugh Freeze has a hotter seat than Kalen Deboer

On the other side of the SEC there is no shortage of head coaches of hot seats. A Google search will reveal stories from six to eight coaches in hot seat situations for the 2025 season. Not all Alabama football fans agree that Kalen Deboer is in a hot place in the second year, but many experts brought him there. Deboer's seat is undoubtedly warm after Alabama's purple has not reached the playoffs. It is too early to know how warm.

Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams recently discussed the hotter seat between Deboer and Hugh Freeze. They disagreed.

Adams came to the conclusion that “Deboer is exposed to more pressure. It is Alabama. The flood awaits national championships, and Deboer did not come close last season … Imagine that Deboer misses the playoff for a second season in a row or – Lord, help him – he loses the Iron Bowl. Alabama fans will help him to pack for Washington.” I suspect Adams is right that Deboer cannot reach the playoff again without many purple tide fans losing confidence in it. Deboer was probably able to survive when he lost an iron shell as long as Alabama won a playoff game a few weeks later.

Toppmeyer saw the hot seat situation differently. “Freeze is exposed to more pressure because its buyout is tens of millions of dollars cheaper than Deboers. Auburn could easily stomach a buyout of stomach stomach.

Toppmeyer makes a good point for the buyout situations. According to Adam Cole from Montgomery Advertister, Auburn paid 16 million US dollars to Buyouts in 2021; $ 7.8 million in 2022; $ 18.5 m in 2023; and $ 6.3 million in 2024. These figures do not contain Builes coach -Buyouts. Auburn still owes Gus Malzahn four payments of $ 2.7 million, which are paid annually by 2028. If Auburn freezes in 2025, it will be owed about $ 17 million, but the withdrawals could also be spread out by 2028.

Another situation for Alabama Football

Alabama Football has a different situation. A shorter termination of Deboer after the 2025 season would have a buy-out of around $ 70 million. I feel that Greg Bryne knew that the transition to Nick Saban would probably be rocky. If I have little or nothing to do with the strong buyout, I assume that the Byrne plan should hold at least three seasons at Deboer, regardless of the results on the field.

The end result is deboers seat may be warm, but the only true hot seat in the state of Alabama is the only one on which Hugh Freeze sits.