The Auburn Tigers opened this football season with five straight home games and high hopes of using a strong start to show progress in their second year with Hugh Freeze as head coach on the Plains.
They limped away from Jordan-Hare Stadium with a mistake-plagued 2-3 record overall, an 0-2 start to Southeastern Conference play, and their biggest challenge yet awaiting this Saturday: a visit to No. 5 Georgia (4-1, 1-1) with the Bulldogs unlikely to be feeling friendly in the latest edition of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry coming off a frustrating loss at Alabama.
So far, it’s been pretty much the same old Auburn that has posted three straight losing seasons with shaky quarterback play and other maladies.
“We’re judged on results, and it’s my responsibility to bring results to this program that restores glory,” said Freeze, no stranger at coaching in the high-stakes SEC after leading Ole Miss from 2012 to 2016.
Freeze repeatedly touts recruiting successes with talented freshmen such as wide receiver Cam Coleman, but the Tigers clearly have a long way to go — and the frustrating losses have started to pile up.
Auburn fell 21-14 to new Atlantic Coast Conference member California after Payton Thorne was intercepted four times on Sept. 7. Two weeks later, replacement Hank Brown was picked off three times before halftime, and the Tigers lost 24-14 to Arkansas to open SEC play.
After another quarterback change back to Thorne, Auburn blew an 11-point fourth-quarter lead and succumbed 27-21 last Saturday to Oklahoma, which moved up two spots to No. 19 in this week’s AP Top 25. The back-breaking blow: Kip Lewis intercepting Thorne and returning it for a touchdown.
Freeze, who is having to preach patience instead of touting progress on the field, called “not being 5-0 very hard to swallow.”
“And we certainly had our chances to do that,” he said. “My ask is to stick with us through our growing pains and support our guys and efforts and our recruiting efforts, because the results are going to come. We’re not that far off.
“I hope the (2025) recruiting class sees that, knows they have a chance to come in and immediately impact this program just like the (2024) class is currently doing. But building does take time.”
Freeze points to lackluster recruiting efforts under predecessor Bryan Harsin and the loss of 57 transfers over three years in emphasizing the roster challenges he inherited. Harsin was fired before even making it to the end of a second season, going 9-12 overall and 4-9 in SEC games.
Freeze, who signed a six-year deal worth $6.5 million annually, is now 8-10 overall and 3-7 in the SEC with five straight losses to power conference opponents.
He has already made Auburn more competitive with rivals such as Alabama, Georgia and LSU on the recruiting trail. He pulled in the No. 10 recruiting class this year, and the upcoming class was rated fourth going into Wednesday.
The Tigers, though, are still plagued by poor quarterback play after failing to land one in the transfer portal. Freeze is sticking with Thorne for the Georgia game.
“It’s hard to say he’s not the starter in these kinds of games,” Freeze said of the 6-foot-2, 203-pound, fifth-year senior who played three seasons for Big Ten member Michigan State before transferring to Auburn in 2023. “I think he gives us the best chance to win as long as he keeps taking care of the football like he did.”
Freeze also points out his team’s youth, with underclassmen making up about half of the players who have seen action this season.
But the team has committed 11 turnovers in three losses after a home stretch when a winning record seemed a modest goal. The remaining schedule after Georgia includes visits to No. 9 Missouri and top-ranked Alabama.
“We can play with any team in the country if we play the way we’ve been playing, minus a few mistakes,” Auburn tight end Luke Deal said.
A bowl bid is far from assured, but Freeze hopes his team builds off the early setbacks instead of going on a downward spiral.
“I’m going to teach on it and give some real-life examples from myself and how at times in life you’ve got to draw the line on ‘What am I really in this for? What did I really sign up for?’ What happens when you sign up for a job, and it doesn’t go the way you want?” Freeze said. “Do you spiral? I don’t know.”