Auburn University has made a decision that many have expected for weeks now by firing head coach Hugh Freeze in the wake of an embarrassing 10-3 defeat at home against arguably the worst team in the SEC, the Kentucky Wildcats.

Becoming the latest team to join the search for a new man in charge of the football program during what has already been an absolutely wild coaching carousel, Freeze’s time has been ticking on The Plains really since last year’s disappointing season.

After not even making a bowl game last year with a 5-7 record to follow up a disappointing 6-7 first year for Freeze, the Kentucky loss dropped the Tigers to 4-5 and gave them their fifth defeat in the last six games. Freeze finishes his tenure at Auburn with a record of 15-19, but most disastrously with a record in the SEC at 6-16.

Even Freeze’s predecessor Bryan Harsin — who was widely regarded by fans as one of the worst hires in history — had more success on Saturdays with a final record of 9-12 and conference record of 4-9.

Though Freeze took over the program with a depleted roster, he did a nice job of building up the level of talent in the building and by this season, the roster was ready to compete. This is what made the failures — especially on offense — even more of a problem for Freeze.

With the pieces in place, his offense was still a disaster and was not getting any better. Scoring three points at home against Kentucky was just the latest example that things were not working between Freeze and Auburn.

Now, the Tigers will join what promises to be the most insane hiring cycle we have seen in a long time or even ever. Auburn will have to find their new coach with the likes of LSU, Florida, Penn State, and many others also searching for theirs.

Even with that fact and Freeze’s $15.4 million buyout on the table, director of athletics John Cohen was left with no choice here. Things were not working, and it was time to move on.

The next head coach is going to have a tall task cleaning up this mess.