SECMD25: Freeze has big expectations for Auburn in 2025

Auburn coach Hugh Freeze didn’t hold back when giving the prospects of his team in 2025. He expects the Tigers to be in the playoff hunt. (Bill Lumpkin, III)

By GRAHAM DUNN

It may not have met the criteria for a guarantee, i.e. Joe Namath and Super Bowl III, but Hugh Freeze seemed to lay it on the line for his Auburn Tigers this season.

“I truly believe that in the playoff run,” Freeze said Tuesday, “we’re going to be in this discussion because I love this team.”

“It’s time for us to start climbing that mountain. Our expectation is we embrace the high expectations that Auburn brings, and we believe this team's potential is limitless.”

Depending on who you listen to, it was a bold statement considering that in his first two years, the Tigers have yet to finish above .500. They have a 5-11 record in conference play and have not beaten their arch rivals Alabama and Georgia in a combined 13 games.

It wasn’t too long ago he made a comment during the Regions Golf tournament that his team “had to at least make a bowl game.”

That’s a far cry from a playoff bid.

“Our expectation is we embrace the high expectations that Auburn brings,” Freeze said, “and we believe this team’s potential is limitless.”

In his first three seasons, Freeze has kept his positive vibes, supporting quarterbacks that were less than stellar, defenses that have given up big plays and fighting through turnover after turnover.

So, what in Freeze’s mind has this team turning the corner?

“We should have won or could have won some games last year,” he said. “And we’ve done everything in our power to evaluate why that happened and what we can do better as coaches and then get more pieces to the puzzle with more and more players.”

The players seemed to have bought in. Defensive end Keldrick Faulk wasn’t holding back when he was asked about the prospects for the Tigers.

“I feel our defense could be the best in the country, in my opinion,” he said. “We have so many guys that played last year that was young, especially in our secondary. Our secondary was containing mostly freshmen and second-year guys.”

The Tigers will break in another new quarterback in Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold. He was part of Auburn’s misery last season when the Sooners won on a Pick-6 late in the game.

“My confidence is extremely high right now,” Arnold said. “I credit that to my whole teammates. I think having their respect and their trust and going out and doing what we did in the spring, I feel like the offense had a really efficient spring, which instilled a lot of confidence in me.”

The Tigers had what seemed at the time a fortuitous schedule to start the 2024 season but started 2-2 with a couple of head-scratching losses to Cal and Arkansas. It didn’t get any better on the way to the program’s fourth-straight losing season.

“The first thing you have to do is look at you as a coach,” Freeze said. “Why did we lose those games? Well, last year they came down, those close ones, turnovers, we were the worst in the league at turning the ball over, and we did not score enough touchdowns in the red zone, and we did not play great defense on critical downs, and our field goal unit did not make some critical field goals for various reasons.

“The first thing you have to do is look at you as a coach. Why did we lose those games? Well, last year they came down, those close ones, turnovers, we were the worst in the league at turning the ball over, and we did not score enough touchdowns in the red zone, and we did not play great defense on critical downs, and our field goal unit did not make some critical field goals for various reasons.”

The season opens against a solid opponent in Big 12 favorite Baylor on a Friday night. It might be the signal towards whether the Tigers can get out of the funk they are currently in.

“There is zero hiding from the fact that that first game is a big game, and we must embrace that too. That should help elevate our focus all throughout our fall camp because we're playing a very good football team that has a very good football coach in Dave Aranda.”