Thoughts on the Current State of Auburn Football: Flourishing or Floundering?

It's been a while since I've had a chance to pick up my laptop and share my thoughts on this blog. Life has been busy, but I figured that I'd take some time to write on this lazy Sunday. Lots has happened since the last time I've posted. Auburn basketball is in the midst of their greatest start to a season in the history of the program. However, that's not what I'm here to talk about today. Maybe I will on another post.

I'm here to give you my honest opinion on the trajectory of the Auburn football program, who finished the 2024 season at a very disappointing 5-7. In my post where I previewed this season, I projected that we would finish 8-4. Clearly, I was just a tad bit optimistic, as any true fan should be. I do also try and think realistically, and if we're being honest, we absolutely had the talent to be an eight win team. What we didn't have was the execution. Time and time again, we found ourselves in a tight game, needing just one play to secure a victory. And time and time again, the players and staff failed to step up and execute that play. Whether it was throwing a pick-six against Oklahoma when we had them on the ropes, or whether it was poor coaching causing pre-snap mishaps in a pivotal moment on the road at Georgia, we failed to make plays when we needed them most. In my mind, this season was a total letdown.

However, in the midst of all of the bad that I saw this season, I also saw so much potential in the young players on this roster. We are SO. CLOSE. Now, you may be thinking, "Will, how can you look at four straight losing seasons and argue that Auburn football is close to being where they need to be?" I'll explain to you how...

I'm finally starting to see Auburn stack talented recruiting classes. I think that Hugh Freeze has done a fantastic job so far of identifying talent and selling the future of the program to recruits. According to 247 sports, Auburn is sitting at 6th in the 2025 recruiting rankings. Do you realize how impressive it is to be able to recruit at such a high-level after putting together four straight losing seasons? In order, the rankings go Texas, Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon..... and Auburn. Five playoff contenders, then a 5-7 Auburn team. I genuinely have no idea how Hugh does it. And after seeing so many of our freshman make an immediate impact this year (Cam Coleman, Demarcus Riddick, Jay Crawford, and more), I am confident in his ability to pick out guys that are going to be ready to play early and often.

I also think that we addressed all of our biggest needs in the transfer portal. Obviously, the biggest need this offseason was a quarterback. And frankly, I don't really think we could get any worse. Hugh went out and got former Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold very early in the first portal window, and in all honesty, I'm a bit skeptical of this decision. Arnold struggled for Oklahoma early last season, to the point where he was even benched for a few games. He did however return and improve later in the season, accounting for six touchdowns and zero interceptions in his last six games. I think he has a lot of upside, and he will certainly have more talent to work with at Auburn than he did at Oklahoma last year. I'm hoping he will take a step forward and play at the level that he's expected to play at as a former consensus five-star recruit.

We also added Eric Singleton, the number one receiver in the portal out of Georgia Tech. He is an explosive playmaker who will perfectly backfill Keandre Lambert-Smith's production. I'm very excited to see the impact that he will make on the Plains. We also added receiver Horatio Fields out of Wake Forest who should compete for snaps in the 2025 offense. USC transfer Mason Murphy and Virginia Tech transfer Xavier Chaplin will battle for spots at offensive tackle, a position where Auburn had some major struggles last year.

We didn't have much turnover on the defensive side of the ball, so there weren't many super important adds in the portal there. Chris Murray out of Sam Houston State and Dallas Walker IV out of Western Kentucky rounded out the defensive front. We also grabbed Xavier Atkins from LSU to add some depth to the linebacker room. The secondary is loaded with young talent, so not much action there, just a few more depth guys to complete the room. The last transfer I will mention is Southern Miss kicker Connor Gibbs, who will compete for a spot at place kicker where Auburn struggled mightily in the 2024 season. I'm holding out hope that Alex McPherson will be healthy by the start of next season, but that is beginning to look less and less likely.

My last source of hope that we are close to competing for championships again is the defensive mentality under DJ Durkin. I think he did a fantastic job of keeping us in games last year when the offense was struggling. The fact that we held Cal to 21 points while turning the ball over FIVE TIMES is very promising in my eyes. I think that the young talent we had last year will take a step forward and be even better next year, and between them and DJ Durkin's ability to gameplan and call plays, I'm hoping that we will be very good on that side of the ball.

I truly do think that this team will turn a corner this year. Granted, I have said that the last four years as well, but the talent of this roster is undeniable. Hugh will have his work cut out for him. All we have to do now is execute when it matters most. If we can do that, a LARGE step forward is inevitable.

I will finish by answering a question that has begun circulating pretty frequently across college football media. And that is this:

Is Hugh Freeze on the hot seat?

My answer is...absolutely. Harsin left the football program in a gigantic hole before he was fired. Freeze had to try his best to throw together a roster for year one. Obviously what he did wasn't enough, but that was a very tall ask. He brought in a lot of young talent for year two, and I think we absolutely underperformed with that talent. Maybe it was coaching, maybe it was truly just a lack of competence at quarterback. I don't know the answer. What I do know is that we're about to find out this year what our issues have been. Freeze has no more excuses. He's had two years to assemble an offensive unit that will fit his gameplan. We will have a lot of talent on that side of the ball this year. If we can't execute with the quarterback that Hugh hand-picked early in the portal, then I'm not sure we ever will under his regime. If we finish with anything less than eight wins, I believe the Freeze era in Auburn may be over.

Lots of questions to be answered next season. I'm looking forward to it. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy some Auburn basketball.