Is Auburn Football Back?

Football is finally back. The unbearable dead zone in sports has come to an end. I spent my Saturday on a couch watching some very mediocre games, and I had an absolute blast. Auburn will kick off next Saturday against UMass (who gutted out a win yesterday), and the anticipation is at an all time high. We have a whole new coaching staff and lots of new players on the roster, so there are many unknowns regarding how good we will be this year. I am here to offer my opinions on some of those unknowns.

I'll jump right into the good stuff - how many games will Auburn win this year?

I like to set a ceiling, a floor, and a realistic expectation for record predictions. I believe that Auburn's floor is 6-6, their ceiling is 9-3, and my personal expectation is 8-4.

I would be perfectly fine with an 8-4 season. Normally I would have higher expectations, but Hugh Freeze has been given a very difficult task of trying to dig this program out of the hole that Bryan Harsin dug them into. And since Auburn is a higher level program, he will have to do this rather quickly. Fans and boosters are not very patient, and they expect Auburn to be back to competing for championships very soon. If not, Hugh Freeze will be the next victim of the coaching carousel.

An 8-4 season would be a big step back in the right direction, and I think it would give Auburn enough momentum to bring in some big-time talent and get back to competing for a playoff spot within the next two or three years. We have already landed some very impressive recruits, including two five-stars (one former Alabama commit and one former Georgia commit) and a plethora of four-stars. A solid season this year would make Auburn a very desirable portal location. A top 15 recruiting class and some good portal pickups could put Auburn in position to compete for the SEC title next year.

So what games do I think we will we win this year? I think we start off 3-0, beating UMass, California, and Samford. Cal is not a game that needs to be taken lightly. It will be Auburn's first road test, and the 9:30 P.M. start time could cause some issues. However, I do think that Freeze will have Auburn ready, and we will ultimately come out on top. After those three games, we travel to Texas A&M for our SEC opener. I think that one will be a tossup, but I am leaning towards Auburn dropping that game. They will certainly have the better athletes, and College Station is a tough place to play. We then play Georgia and LSU back-to-back, and I don't see us winning either of those. After those two, we get Ole Miss and Mississippi State at home, and I am going to go out on a limb and say we win both. Even after potentially dropping three straight, I have confidence that Coach Freeze is a good enough leader to keep his guys invested and engaged and win these home games. I think Auburn will ride that momentum and win the next three as well. Vanderbilt and New Mexico State should both be no doubters, and I think that if we can slow down the run against Arkansas even a little bit, we will win that one as well. We finish the season off with Alabama, and any college football fan knows that this game is always interesting in Jordan Hare. However, I think that Alabama will end up with the win in a close game.

Those are my initial projections. Obviously, these projections could end up changing as we learn more about this team in the coming weeks, but with the information I have now, I think 8-4 is a very realistic expectation. It will definitely be tough to win five straight after losing three in a row, but it is doable.

Now to answer the initial question - Is Auburn back?

Here is my answer. I don't know.

I will say that I have not been this excited for a season in a very long time. After two disappointing seasons in a row, I am anxious to see how we perform this year under the new staff. I do think that we are in a much better position than we were before the Freeze hire. He came in and immediately got on the recruiting trail and in the portal, and he has had great success. Auburn football is trending back in the right direction. I wouldn't necessarily say that "we are back" just yet, but I do think we are rapidly approaching that status.