AUBURN | Bryan Harsin was fired on Halloween of 2022 after compiling a 9-12 record eight games into his second season at Auburn.

After Saturday’s 17-7 loss to Vanderbilt in Jordan-Hare Stadium, Hugh Freeze is 9-13 nine games into his second season.

It’s shocking that Freeze’s teams continue to underperform on the field and that this program is barreling toward a fourth consecutive losing season.

Shocking and completely unacceptable.

But the records, as bad as they are, are where any comparisons between Freeze and Harsin end.

While I’d give Freeze a D at best when it comes to running Auburn’s offense, he’s an A+ in recruiting and appears to be doing at least a solid job in running the program.

I’d also give the hire of D.J. Durkin and the work being done on that side of the ball a B+.

I’d give Harsin D’s and F’s across the board and that definitely includes the way he treated many of the regular people that dealt with him behind the scenes.

You won’t find many people coming to his defense.

Freeze is doing a lot of things right and Auburn wouldn’t be recruiting the way it is and maintaining this class if him and his staff weren’t working their tails off.

He’s just needs to fix the offense.

I think AU still has personnel problems in some key areas like quarterback and offensive tackle. They’ve also got a coaching problem when it comes to developing viable game plans that take advantage of the talent they do have on hand.

On top of that, players on offense aren’t developing as fast as they are on defense.

Malcolm Simmons and Bradyn Joiner are certainly better players than they were a few months ago. But who else has really stepped up on that side of the ball?

From my perspective, some of the young players that you expected to make a bigger impact have taken a step back since August and September.

On defense, I can name a half-dozen including Jay Crawford, Kaleb Harris, Kensley Louidor-Faustin, Demarcus Riddick, Malik Blocton and Bobby Jamison-Travis that have all stepped forward.

I think there needs to be more accountability on offense from Freeze and his assistants. AU’s players need to be held to a higher standard on that side of the ball and they need to be physically and mentally tougher.

This offense continues to fail in critical moments, lacks focus and consistency.

All of that goes back to being held accountable on and off the field, in practice and in games.

That needs to change starting right now. And just one tough practice during the off-week won’t get it done.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 46 years to the day a successful and popular rock band named after a city, played as a headliner in that city for the first time. On Nov. 6, 1978, Boston played in front of a sold-out crowd in the Boston Garden, its first major show in the city of Boston. Sammy Hagar opened the concert that night followed by Boston, which opened their set with “Rock & Roll Band” and ended with a six-song encore, which included “Smokin’,” “Foreplay/Long Time” and “Something About You.” Tickets in the balcony for the sold-out event were just $7.50. Boston was touring in support of their second studio album, Don’t Look Back, which was released in Aug. 15, 1978 and included several hit songs in “Don’t Look Back,” “A Man I’ll Never Be” and “Feelin’ Satisfied.” Their self-tiled first album, released in 1976, included three hit songs in “More Than a Feeling,” “Foreplay/Long Time” and “Peace of Mind.” The band toured mostly smaller venues in 1976, opening for both Foghat and Black Sabbath before headlining their own tour the following year. Boston released six studio albums and had one No. 1 hit on the Billboard 100 in 1986’s “Amanda.” They have sold 75 million records worldwide, which ranks among the top 120 of all time, but have not been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Boston was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1977 but lost out to Starland Vocal Band.

Guitarist and keyboardist Tom Scholz, vocalist Brad Delp, guitarist Barry Goudreau, bassist Fran Sheehan and drummer Sib Hashian first started playing together in the early 1970’s. Scholz, who got his first job working for Polaroid, built a recording studio in his basement and they started recording together and by 1975 had recorded a number of their future hit songs. Scholz first wrote Foreplay while studying mechanical engineering at MIT in 1969. A demo tape attracted the attention of Epic Records, and the band chose the name Boston after a suggestion by producer John Boylan and engineer Warren Dewey. Most of the work on their first album was already finished and it was released shortly after they signed. It has sold more than 20 million copies, which ranks fifth all-time for debut albums. A dispute and eventual lawsuit with their manager and label delayed their third album’s release until 1986. Delp left the band shortly thereafter, but returned in 1994. Delp also played in a Beatles tribute band, BeatleJuice, until his suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning in 2007. Boston remains active today and is working on a seventh album.