Welcome to can’t-pretend-anymore weekend, where delusions go to die. After college football’s Week 10, we now can stop pretending …

∎ That Auburn will do anything but fire Hugh Freeze. He’s toast. There’s no recovering from a 10-3 loss to Kentucky for a third-year SEC coach. Auburn fans are as indefatigable as any, but even they cried uncle on the Freeze tenure and headed toward the Jordan-Hare Stadium exits early. Those who stayed ‘til the end booed Freeze as he left the field.

If Auburn has any self-respect for its football program, Freeze will have a buyout check in his hand by high noon. (UPDATE: Freeze has been fired.)

Consider this a five-year comeuppance for Auburn firing Gus Malzahn in 2020 and forking over what, at the time, ranked as the largest buyout in the sport’s history. Malzahn never served a losing season, but Auburn thought it could do better.

Bryan Harsin and Freeze proved Auburn wrong. The Tigers are headed toward a fifth straight losing season. The offense and quarterback play, two things Freeze was hired to fix, are as poor as ever. So is the offensive line. When a coach stops being good at the thing he used to be good at, it’s time to go.

Freeze is 15-19 at Auburn. That’s good for a tee time at Buyout Country Club, where Brian Kelly’s got a par putt on the No. 2 green.

Freeze, as he’s done for several weeks, insisted “we’re really close.” He’s become such a broken record he must be in on the joke. Auburn’s definitely not close to blocking anyone. Kentucky amassed seven sacks against the SEC’s worst offensive line.

Freeze is close, all right. Close to getting his failure money, when Auburn fires its third coach in six seasons.

∎ That Tennessee is a playoff team. The Vols are out, after suffering their third loss in an elimination game against Oklahoma at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee’s best accomplishment was playing one good half against Georgia, but everyone does that.

Credit Tennessee for not cratering after losing its starting quarterback to the transfer portal in April, but, mostly, credit a cashmere-soft schedule that the Vols aren’t worse than their 6-3 record. Nico Iamaleava’s turnover-prone heir, Joey Aguilar, had three giveaways against the Sooners. There’s your ballgame.

Oklahoma clings to playoff life, while Tennessee advanced toward some bowl game that used to enjoy relevance.

∎ That Carson Beck and Mario Cristobal are an unstoppable duo. Cristobal continues to do less with more inside the ACC. After a hot start, Miami’s puckering up tighter than a duck’s heinie as the playoff nears. True to form, eh?

Some visionary athletic director needs to introduce the idea of co-coaches. Pay each half of the going rate of a real coach, and let them split the job. That’d be the ticket for Miami. Let Cristobal recruit the team, and hire someone else to coach it.

Beck’s interception woes did not, in fact, end after he transferred in from Georgia. He threw four picks in a loss to Louisville. He threw two more in this latest 26-20 loss to SMU, including one in overtime of this game that ended with a field-storming, because the youngins must feed the TikTok content beast.

If the CFP committee must choose between two-loss Miami or two-loss Notre Dame as a last-team-in, do you believe they’ll select the Hurricanes on the basis of a three-point win against the Irish in the season opener? I don’t buy it. They’ll pick the team with the shiny gold helmets that’ll take a 10-game winning streak into selection Sunday.

Anyway, Miami might lose again before then. It’s November, after all. Pucker up.

∎ That Ohio State will be ensnared in a trap game. Not happening. The Buckeyes aren’t losing to the likes of Penn State, Purdue, UCLA or Rutgers. Tune back in for The Game. Until then, it’s a rout-fest while Julian Sayin builds his Heisman Trophy credentials.

He completed 20-of-23 passes in a 38-14 smashing of Penn State. You can bet on anything these days, so I’m expecting to see this proposition from the sportsbooks next week: Will Sayin throw more incompletions in his next game than Beck throws interceptions?

Three and out

1. If the CFP committee learned from its 2024 mistake (or is watching this season), it’ll make the ACC a one-bid league.

2. All the buzz around Deion Sanders seems to have left around the time Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter departed for the NFL. No more Louis Vuitton. What’s left seems like the fare from an “underground yard sale,” as Diego Pavia might say.

“Come at me. Don't attack the players. Come at me," Sanders said after a 52-17 loss to Arizona. Sorry, but everyone’s open to criticism amid this 3-6 season.

3. A scene from the road: Verne Lundquist entered the Texas press box before kickoff of the Longhorns’ win against Vanderbilt smiling and laughing and greeting former media colleagues. Lundquist wore a Masters quarter-zip. If that doesn’t warm your soul, I’m afraid you’ve suffered the dementor’s kiss.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Auburn must fire Hugh Freeze. No more pretending after Kentucky debacle

Reporting by Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY

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