2025 GAME 12 REVIEW: Another Loss, Another Coach

Bama beats Auburn 27-20 and Auburn hires Alex Golesh as new head coach.  I apologize for the late post.  Another Iron Bowl loss and then the pivot to hiring Alex Golesh was just too much.  I just had to walk away for a couple of days.  I am now back and ready to give some takes on the past week in Auburn football. The very first thing I do when I write these posts is google for a good picture and that is where I will start this week...  I am literally told every day about the wonders of AI and hey I have used ChatGPT as much as the next person but I am still not as enamored with it as a lot of people.  However when I googled "depressed Auburn fan" and got the AI overview I have to say that AI encapsulated EXACTLY what it is to be "a depressed Auburn fan" right now...

"Being a depressed Auburn fan often means enduring an emotional rollercoaster of high hopes, bitter losses (especially to Alabama), coaching carousel frustrations, and occasional flashes of brilliance, leading to cyclical disappointment but also enduring loyalty." 

I mean WOW, I can certainly say from an actual depressed Auburn fan's perspective that this definition is absolute truth.  I literally cannot say it better than that.  We also had to endure the whole gamut this past month.  Emotional rollercoaster, check.  Bitter losses (especially to Bama), check.  Occasional flashes of brilliance, check.  Finally, a lot of disappointment, check.  That is the way I see it where you have other people who think every close loss is really just a win in disguise.  I think those people are crazy.  After another season of close losses I do not want to hear anything positive out of a loss again.  After this season I could care less whether it is 49-48 or 49-0, A LOSS IS A ------- LOSS.  This team, of course, had to put us through it one more horrific time this season in the Iron Bowl.

The problem with this offense is you cannot build a team on wide receivers and that is what Hugh Freeze tried to do.  It will not work no matter who the coach is.  Derrick Nix did a great job, even with the horrendous start to the Iron Bowl, with this offense but the unit is fundamentally flawed.  The offensive line was better under him but they were still a BELOW AVERAGE SEC UNIT.  It is the most depressing part of this game and this season for me and it is the biggest question I have with the new coaching staff.  Auburn has not had a top SEC offensive line in ALMOST A DECADE now with NO END IN SIGHT.  After all the hoopla and the sunshine pumping sychophantic optimistic new coach blather I only have ONE QUESTION of Alex Golesh.  ONE.  Can he and his staff recruit and develop a top level SEC offensive line?  The years are going by.

Again, this is all Bama's and $aban's doing and man they did their job better than any Bammer could have ever imagined.  Bama lost a Heisman Trophy and a shot at a national three-peat during the "Kick Six" in 2013 and Auburn scored over 40 points on them at home in 2014.  Something had to be done.  During this same time Hugh Freeze at Ole Miss was also beating Bama and $aban.  That was easier to deal with, all it took was a phone call to the right people and Ole Miss was up on NCAA charges (for doing the same things Bama was doing).  Auburn was a tougher nut to crack as Gus Malzahn is as squeaky clean as they come.  Bama got a gift though when the Rams took Auburn left tackle Greg Robinson as the second overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft.

Robinson was an absolute road grader as a run blocker but could not professionally pass block to save his life.  The Rams and anyone else should have known that.  He stuck around for a few years but was pretty much immediately diagnosed as a complete failure for that high a pick.  The Bama syndicate who has delivered all of those top recruiting classes and protected the kingdom plus everyone else associated with Bama recruiting quickly jumped on Robinson's failure and spread the word far and wide that OFFENSIVE LINEMEN ESPECIALLY TACKLES THAT GO TO AUBURN WILL FAIL IN THE NFL.  The Bama machine has now hammered home that fact for a decade to where it is now considered a fact.  Kirby Smart who was part of that machine for a long time and was on the receiving side of that Auburn offense in 2013 picked up the message when he went to Georgia and helped hammer it home.

It has spread like wildfire where anyone competing against Auburn for an offensive linemen goes to it.  It is a message that so far money has not been able to break.  Auburn fans thought there might have been a breakthrough this past season when they paid a king's ransom for left tackle Xavier Chaplin...  only to be disappointed far beyond their worst nightmares as Chaplin has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.  He was on full display in this year's Iron Bowl with a stunningly embarrassing missed block and of course his staple mistake of illegal procedure.  I think he also had a hold or two in there as well.  It is believed Auburn paid over a million dollars for this guy only to get some of the worst left tackle play in recent memory.

The reason for this diatribe is again Auburn lost to Bama mainly based on its offensive line, by far the weakest unit on the field for the Tigers.  The Auburn defense got their nose bloodied and they gave up Bama's final fifteen play eight minute winning touchdown drive but overall did a pretty good job.  Of course that winning Bama drive was also aided by completely fraudulent roughing the passer call.  It is depressing knowing these games are almost fixed.  There is just too much money involved and Bama is a key chess piece in the SEC getting the most money out of this college football year.  A call here and there doesn't fix the game but it is hard to overcome.  Anyway the Auburn defense held Bama quarterback Ty Simpson and vaunted Bama passing game to 122 yards.  They gave the team a chance to win.

The Auburn offense also made some plays but not enough and simply could not run the ball outside of Ashton Daniels scrambling.  The Tigers were lucky that Daniels was able to make something out of nothing as his protection broke down many times because other than that Auburn simply could not run the ball with running back Jeremiah Cobb gaining only 33 yards on 10 carries.  Auburn had a decent quarterback, a good running back, and some great wide receivers but struggled much of the game.  That tells you ONE THING.  The Auburn offensive line is just a very weak unit.  Again from the Auburn perspective they are the bottom line in this game.  I really do not know what else to say.  The offense had to score 30 points to beat Bama and they could not do it because of the offensive line.

Before I get to Alex Golesh let me pause to state that Bama fans are literally the most spoiled fans on the face of this planet after the $aban years.  This week after winning the Iron Bowl I had to listen to many of them worry about how they might not make the playoff if they lose the SEC Championship Game and so on.  OMG boo ------- hoo, it is just part of it.  It sure hurt Auburn in 2017!  Auburn beat the ---- out of Georgia and Bama (both ranked #1 at the time Auburn played them) but lost to Georgia in the SECCG.  The Tigers then got dumped out of everything and the two teams they beat soundly at the end of the season played for the ------- national championship!  Bama got in through the back door not even winning their division and avoiding the SECCG to win the national title that year just like they also did in 2011.  So if they get bit this year then it is karma but I am sure they will still get in.

I have also listened to Bama fans whine and moan about how bad Kalen DeBoer is.  THE DUDE IS 44-9 IN HIS LAST FOUR YEARS OF COACHING.  I mean for the love of any kind of common sense stop your whining you spoiled spoiled spoiled people.  I have literally had Bama fans try to "top" me in complaining about our teams!!!???!!!  NOBODY CAN TOP FIVE ------- YEARS OF AWFULNESS UNDER BRYAN HARSIN AND HUGH FREEZE.  I mean are you kidding me???  FIVE STRAIGHT LOSING SEASONS.  SIX STRAIGHT LOSSES TO BAMA. EIGHT STRAIGHT LOSSES TO GEORGIA.  Of course some Auburn fans could actually be worse.  Bama fans mostly only care about winning while Auburn fans eat each other alive on the various Auburn sites and run off players like Bo Nix (who currently is leading one of the best teams in the NFL).

This brings us to the Auburn coaching situation.  I am going to try and be succinct here as I have read the aforementioned Auburn sites and had fans try to tell me what happened and what to think.  I thought the clear choice for Auburn was Tulane head coach John Sumrall.  I have read many Auburn fans and their ridiculous nonsense who didn't want him or the ones that are dogging him since we did not get him and they are wrong.  The guy has won four straight conference championships at two different schools.  I mean case closed.  That is not easy.  On top of that he is from Alabama and is very familiar with the recruiting territory since he coached at Troy.  He was the best guy, period, end of story.  However I knew all along our stupid egomaniacal athletic director was going to screw it up and he did.

After the smoke has cleared it is obvious Auburn in whatever fashion made it clear they wanted their next head coach to keep ------- D.J. Durkin and Sumrall did not want to do that and he is right!  OMG D.J. Durkin is a good defensive coordinator but he is not great.  A new coach should be able to determine his own staff, period.  I am so tired of hearing the suggestion that if we kept Durkin we would lose less players.   Give me a break, Auburn went 1-7 they are going to lose a ton of players no matter who the coach is and that is already being proven true.  I think you get the head coach right first and then you go from there.  The powers-that-be and their mouthpieces on all these sites deny this ever happened but the more they deny the more it is obvious they are lying especially since Durkin has been retained!

It is over and in the past so I will stop there but I believe the facts support what I am saying and not some of the other inane drivel I have read vilifying Sumrall.  OK so Auburn had to move to their second choice and that turned out to be Alex Golesh.  I will have to admit that at first I was not happy with the choice and that is part of the reason this post was so late.  However after some time and investigation it would appear that Auburn still got a decent coach.  He was actually in demand and in fact many people including me thought he had accepted the Arkansas job earlier in the week.  The fact that he was actually in demand puts him ahead of Auburn last four coaching hires after Tommy Tuberville since none of them were in demand.  He also served as Tennessee's offensive coordinator under Josh Heupel and had success.

The two years at Tennessee are a big deal because that gives him SEC experience at a big time program and experience recruiting on the north side of Auburn's recruiting territory.  Golesh also did a good job rebuilding a fallen South Florida program and pulled off big wins this season over Boise State and Florida.  In addition to being a head coach this also gave Golesh experience on the south side of Auburn's recruiting territory.  He has a pretty good resume although I do not believe he has been involved in winning a championship yet.  There is also one other weird thing on his resume.  He has pretty much been a tight ends coach his whole career even when he was a coordinator.  I do not think I have ever seen that before.  That puts the jury still out on whether he can develop quarterbacks but maybe it will help him developing an offensive line.  

All in all, I think Sumrall still has the much better resume but Golesh is hopefully a solid choice.  That is all I am going to say.  I wrote optimistic positive sugary-sweet posts when Auburn hired Harsin and Freeze and those are now two of the stupidest most ridiculous garbage posts I have ever written on this site.  I am not doing it again.  In fact the smart thing would be to assume Golesh is going to crash and burn with the way things have been going at Auburn.  He said all the right things at his presser but like close losses I do not care anymore about rah rah speeches.  I am not going to give Auburn football or anyone associated with it much credit for anything till they actually win a game over a really good team.  I have absolutely no time for all the optimistic bull---- that follows a new coaching hire.

I also really do not care who Auburn loses on the current roster either outside Cam Coleman since he is a generational talent although I expect to lose him too.  Getting back to the theme of this post the only thing I care about is getting top offensive tackles.  CAN GOLESH BACK UP ALL HIS BRAVADO AND RECRUIT AND THEN DEVELOP SOME TOP OFFENSIVE TACKLES AND BUILD AN SEC GOOD OFFENSIVE LINE?  Right now that is THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS.  This season and especially the Iron Bowl proved that it does not matter if you have a good quarterback, running back, and wide receivers if you do not have the offensive line.  You bring up a great Auburn football team and I will show you a great offensive line.  IT... IS... THE... ONLY... THING... THAT... MATTERS.  Auburn's football fortunes will not change regardless of the coach till this is done.  

I was fixing to stop there but I have to add a caveat and say Golesh actually has two years to do this since next season is most likely another losing or poor season regardless of what is done thanks to Auburn's dumb moronic stupid idiot athletic directors.  Auburn is already screwed in even years thanks to the worst Auburn AD ever Jay Jacobs changing over a hundred years of Auburn football in 2013 and having Auburn start putting Bama and Georgia on same location rotation.  In even years Auburn plays both of them on the road.  For those rolling their eyes and minimizing that you are dead wrong.  Auburn has not beaten Bama on the road sine the "Cam-back" in 2010 and has not beaten Georgia in Athens since 2005 (TWENTY YEARS).  That schedule alone makes even years almost impossible.

On top of that the SEC has changed to a nine game schedule next season which means that every other year SEC teams get only FOUR home games and have to play FIVE road games.  Guess what years Auburn plays their five road games?  You guessed it!  Thanks to our current moronic athletic director Auburn let the conference make them play their five road games in even years when those road games include both Bama and Georgia.  People can downplay that all they want but the facts say Auburn literally has no chance now in even years and next year is even.  Auburn and Alex Golesh will have to travel to Bama, Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State while entertaining Arkansas, Florida, LSU, and Vanderbilt at home.  That is a ridiculously hard schedule and we will also find out real soon who is rebuilding faster between Golesh and Sumrall when the Gators come to town.

Finishing a season in the SEC 1-7 along with starting all over again with another head coach who will be facing this upcoming schedule does not fill me with a lot of hope for the future but I guess that is just par for the course of being an Auburn fan...

"Being a depressed Auburn fan often means enduring an emotional rollercoaster of high hopes, bitter losses (especially to Alabama), coaching carousel frustrations, and occasional flashes of brilliance, leading to cyclical disappointment but also enduring loyalty."

2025 GAME 11 REVIEW: Deuces Wild

Auburn 62  Mercer 17.  The Auburn offense rolled up another 500+ yards of offense in their second game after former head coach Hugh Freeze was fired and the general consensus from just about everyone is just how bad a job Freeze did with this unit.  In two games albeit against lesser defenses the Auburn offense has looked better than at ANY TIME under Freeze and that includes his games against lesser defenses.  Of course this site has been calling Freeze out all season but now I think everybody is on the same page.  So one more time...  Hugh Freeze was the worst X's and O's coach I have ever seen.  I think everyone agrees he does not deserve the buy out after seeing the Auburn offense the last two games and if they eclipse 20 points against Bama (something he could not do against ANYBODY) it will be completely confirmed.  What a complete waste of a season.

We also learned that one of Freeze's many mistakes with the Auburn offense was his evaluation of the quarterback room.  We learned last game that Ashton Daniels was a much better quarterback than Jackson Arnold.  This game we learned that freshman Deuce Knight is a much better quarterback than Jackson Arnold which means that Hugh Freeze was purposely starting his third string quarterback the majority of the season.  Yes he recruited and paid over a million dollars to a guy who really was not good enough to make the two-deep depth chart.  You just have to shake your head at the absolute stupidity of those in charge at Auburn University to hire two absolute incompetent inept clowns like Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze.  I mean is there any chance of just hiring a decent football coach this time???

Yes it was Mercer but Auburn freshman quarterback Deuce Knight put up an all-time performance being responsible for SIX TOUCHDOWNS, four running and two passing.  The only other Auburn players to be responsible for six touchdowns in a game are Cam Newton and Cadillac Williams.  That is a pretty exclusive club right there.  Knight put up almost 400 yards of offense as well scoring those touchdowns.  I mean Mercer or not, you do not see that kind of performance very often.  This started many people including me thinking that while Auburn sat Ashton Daniels to give him another year of eligibility, whoever takes over might want to think about immediately paying Deuce and building on him rather than maybe wasting a year with Daniels.  You have to think Deuce Knight will leave if he is a planned back up next season if he doesn't leave anyway.

I do not think anything else significant came out of this game.  It was simply the Deuce Knight show well other than Cam Coleman making another incredible catch on one of Knight's touchdown throws.  I think Cam Coleman is the best wide receiver in the country.  It is criminal he was wasted on this lost season.  Unfortunately I think the odds of Auburn keeping him are very long indeed.  I think every top team in the country will line up with money in hand for his signature.  I think there is a good chance he will be the highest paid receiver in the country next season.  If he does leave all Auburn can hope for is that somehow he is able to put in a legendary performance in the Iron Bowl next week to end this season.  If he leaves Auburn hopefully has a back up plan in resigning one or more of Eric Singleton, Malcolm Simmons and Perry Thompson.

The wild west that is college football and trying to keep or get talent on your team has become the biggest job for every staff and the biggest subject of conversation with hardcore fans.  I know I talked about it a lot this week.  Auburn and pretty much every other school needs a smart "general manager" and "front office" to make all of these player decisions.  It is everything.  You look at the NFL, the teams that win make smart roster decisions and the perennial losers cannot make a good decision to save their lives.  Regardless of the coach who takes over Auburn will have a ton of work to do on building next year's roster.  Outside of retaining Coleman, Cobb, some of the other wide receivers and defensive players the Tigers must look for offensive tackles and an edge rusher again plus plug any other holes that come from defections.    

These decisions though will not start for one more week as there is one more game to be played.  On the surface even with Auburn's improved play it is still hard to believe they can actually win the biggest game.  The Tigers are a much better team than their record but unless they upset the Tide they will still end with one of the worst conference records in the history of the school at 1-7.   So many people say that anything can happen in this game but they are dead WRONG.  Anything can happen when Auburn is a good team.  Auburn has NEVER beaten Bama with a losing record in the modern era of college football, NEVER.  The last time an Auburn team with a losing record beat Bama was 1949 so as good as Auburn has looked the last two weeks history says it will be just another close loss to add to the long list this season.  

I made my bold prediction that Auburn would beat Vandy and while it almost came true it did not.  That game, this long losing season and the four previous losing seasons that included giving away two home wins over Bama have robbed me of any confidence going into this game.  I just do not have any hope left football-wise this season... and on that note Happy Thanksgiving!  

2025 GAME 10 REVIEW: Close But No Cigar

Vanderbilt 45 Auburn 38.  Please tell me that I will never ever ever see this guy pictured above play Auburn again.  Diego Pavia led Vanderbilt to complete his third win in a row over Auburn.  I am still just shaking my head over this one.  The Auburn football Tigers finally come to life on offense with the chains of Hugh Freeze gone only to die on defense.  This team with all this talent now looks like it will end this season at 1-7 in the conference, Auburn's worst conference record since the worst season ever in 2012, worse than both Harsin years and the last two Freeze seasons (!!!!).  It literally boggles the mind.  I wrote last week I thought Auburn would do something amazing and win this game.  It started just as I hoped it would with Auburn going up 20-3...

HOWEVER ONCE AGAIN just like Georgia, just like Missouri, Auburn had the ball FIRST AND GOAL AT THE ONE and managed to BLOW IT AGAIN.  SHOCKER another Xavier Chaplin procedure penalty!  Auburn had to settle for the field goal AGAIN.  It should have been 24-3 and yes I think that would have put Auburn over the top just like those other games.  I have never seen a team blow so many opportunities on the goal line in a season in my life.  I mean yes the offense was much better and we will get to that but when you have it first and goal on the one yard line against a good team you NEED TO SCORE A TOUCHDOWN.  Yes I think it made that big a difference.  I have never seen a worse coached team when it comes to procedure penalties in my life.  Here is a suggestion for this open week, how about the offensive line work on this ONE THING till it is FIXED.

I am sorry I am not opening this post acting like Auburn just won the national championship because they looked better on offense like I have read many people doing.  I am glad Auburn looked better but they still lost the game and in that goal line situation above they looked the same as the rest of the season.  I was surprised Auburn was that good on offense but not surprised there was a major improvement even with no practice time.  As a post I read during the game said, Auburn just started playing normal football, calling normal passing plays.  I knew they did not need to do anything ground shaking.  Auburn has a really good running back and some great wide receivers!  I mean Hugh Freeze had to work really hard to make this offense as bad as it has been.  He really should be sued for malpractice.  This game was the final statement on the absolute utter incompetence of Freeze.

You really have to wonder about Freeze's sanity.  If the guy just would have let Derrick Nix call plays like Durkin did Saturday he would have had to do less (and he could play more golf) and he would have been more successful and he would still be at Auburn???!!!???  Nix is also the only legitimate big-time coach on the offensive staff.  It was a big deal Auburn was able to steal him from Lane Kiffin.  One last time, how could Freeze not see how bad he was killing the offense and not make this move?  Oh well enough, It does not matter anymore and Auburn is better off without Hugh Freeze.  Unfortunately again I think a lot of people are taking Auburn's offensive success against a bad Vanderbilt defense a little too far.  Auburn had a good game on offense but a better defense would have caused problems.

Ashton Daniels had a great game, statistically yard-wise the third best passing game in Auburn history.  However Vanderbilt dropped a couple of interceptions and he also held that ball out like a loaf of bread while running and he was lucky it was not stripped.  Also he scrambled easily for extra time against Vandy while most conference teams Auburn played this season would have stopped a lot of that as they stopped Jackson Arnold's scrambling.  Again, I was as happy as anyone to see the offensive improvement but there are just too many people taking it way too far.  I am also probably still grouchy because it also underlined in bold just how good Cam Coleman and Eric Singleton are and how Auburn has UTTERLY WASTED two of the best wide receivers ever to play at Auburn.

The Cam Coleman one-handed touchdown catch followed by another one-handed catch with the other arm (!!!) on the subsequent two-point conversion is one of the most amazing plays in Auburn history.  I just wish it would have been in a win. Singleton while not as spectacular as Coleman also had a great game.  I believe I heard it was the first time in history Auburn had two wide receivers with over a hundred yards in a game.  That sounds correct to me.  That is a big deal but again unfortunately it was in another loss.  That brings us to the defense.  Great job Coach Durkin with the offense but what happened to your side?  The Auburn defense has been one of the best in the country in scoring defense but it is now apparent after this game that most of that success is due to Auburn not playing many great passing teams.  

Vanderbilt like Baylor to start the season rolled up over 400 yards passing and 500 yards of total offense on the Auburn defense.  I mean at times Auburn was just embarrassed on defense.  Up 20-3 with less than two minutes in the first half Vandy scored in THREE PLAYS and a little over 30 seconds.  There were also several instances of Vandy wide receivers running wide open including a big touchdown.  D.J. Durkin is a good coach and he has done a great job bringing this defense together this season but like Auburn's last good defensive coordinator Kevin Steele he just gets undressed by good passing teams. Also I have used the term "third and Durkin" for two years now about Auburn propensity to give up plays on third and long.  Any way these two facts spelled doom for Auburn Saturday.

Auburn now rolls into an open week with only Mercer and Bama left.  The only drama surrounding the Mercer game is who will play quarterback?  Current starter Ashton Daniels cannot play and still redshirt giving him an extra year of eligibility.  I am not sure what Auburn does there.  I would sure like to see what Deuce Knight can do although it sounds like he has already decided to leave Auburn at the end of the season.  Regardless it all comes down to Bama, one chance at redemption.  This is one season where a win in the Iron Bowl would literally make an entire season.  Unfortunately I do not have the same optimism I had before Vanderbilt as I think Ty Simpson is right there with Diego Pavia as the best quarterbacks in the SEC and Bama's defense is miles ahead of Vanderbilt.

However I think Auburn's defense will be better at home as hopefully the Auburn faithful will get fired up one more time this season.  Auburn has three weeks to get ready for Bama and beat a solid Mercer team.  The Tigers finally showed what is possible on offense.  Now the question is can this Auburn team put it together on both sides of the ball for the first time this season in the Iron Bowl? 

2025 GAME 9 REVIEW: Winter Ends

Kentucky 10  Auburn 3.  In my almost 50 years of watching Auburn football (yes 50 years) I have seen a lot of bad games.  The worst seasons in modern Auburn football history are 1980, 1998, 2008, 2012, and the last five seasons.  The first four seasons there ended the tenures of coaches Barfield, Bowden, Tuberville, and Chizik. The last five ended the tenure of Bryan Harsin and now thank goodness the far-too-long tenure of Hugh Freeze.  I still believe everything I wrote last week.  The powers-that-be were going to keep him if he beat Kentucky (previously the worst team in the SEC) and Mercer.  Now thanks to that Kentucky team and Freeze's almost unbelievable ineptitude the plan changed.  For the final time he is the worst x's and o's coach I have ever seen in my life.

The game last night was one of if not the worst offensive game in Auburn history (and that is saying something).  The powers-that-be had no choice but to fire him after that abomination at home against the previous worst team in the SEC.  There is nothing else to say.  Let us just move on and finally blessedly look ahead.  D.J. Durkin has been named interim head coach.  I wish it had been sooner but I will take it.  It may be very short lived because it is almost impossible for an interim to change a team.  HOWEVER there are two factors here you don't usually see in a team that fires its coach midseason.  One I believe this is the most talented team with this bad a record in Auburn history.  I just believe and I maybe wrong that we will see an immediate difference Saturday.  It may not be enough but I believe we will see it. 

Next, D.J. Durkin is an experienced coach who has done a great job the last three years (with the exception of those third and longs but not going to talk about that now).  You usually do not have as good a coach in-house to take over.  He can now tailor this offense to help his defense that has been far better than I ever thought they would be.  They have been exceptional.  I saw the stat that the two other teams with defenses as good statistically as Auburn are Ohio State and Indiana who are both undefeated.  I could be wrong (and usually am) but Vanderbilt better watch out.  For those laughing, I hear you but give me this, if you have read this blog you know it does NOT happen often.  I hope he fires up the offense like he has the defense.  I would relentlessly run the ball and get good at a few play-action pass plays.  

This offensive line just cannot pass block so you have to run which helps the defense.  It also allows this line to do the one thing they might could do half decent and be aggressive.  I think it would also help the frustrated Auburn wide receivers.  There might not be as many pass plays but there would be more big plays.  I am actually excited about Saturday and I don't think I have been excited about a game since 4th and 31.  I mean I think everyone deep down knew that there was no coming back from that loss, first season or not.  It was evident early on this offense was terrible and nothing ever changed.  We just all had to watch the same crap game after game, season after season till now.  I am excited about seeing a coach that might have a different philosophy from Malzahn, Harsin, or Freeze.  I know it cannot change too much but I do not think Durkin gets this opportunity and does not try something different.

I think it is too early to discuss candidates.  All I will say is I vehemently say HELL NO to Eli Drinkwitz and Rhett Lashlee who are both GUS MALZAHN disciples who both run a version of his offense.  I CANNOT WATCH THAT CRAP AGAIN.  NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!  PLEASE!  Right now lets see what Durkin can do.  I think everyone still expects Vanderbilt to win this coming Saturday but I will borrow a line from another recently retired coach...  not so fast my friend.  Everyone has sure seen the worst in Auburn over the last few years but every once in awhile and it is even rarer now but every once in awhile we get to see Auburn do something amazing.  I think a win this Saturday would be.  WAR DAMN EAGLE.

2025 GAME 8 REVIEW: Hugh Freeze Stays

Auburn 33  Arkansas 24.  I want to fully apologize for my overreactive completely erroneous post last week.  Hugh Freeze is not going anywhere.  It was made clear by the people in charge at Auburn through the various Auburn sites that Hugh has their full and unwavering support.  He will not be fired during the season or after the season.  That fact was reinforced by a win today.  I want to congratulate the players who work their butt off all year long.  They do deserve some reward for their hard work and the all the stuff they have gone through this season.  They obviously played hard today and stuck together when things got tough.  I hope they enjoy getting a win.  

I believe they won in spite of one of the worst head coaches I have ever seen at Auburn University.  I guess Hugh Freeze gets some credit for the team sticking together and for his recruiting as compared to Arkansas.  However he is literally the worst x's and o's coach I have ever seen in my life.  I want to make that doubly clear he is literally the worst x's and o's coach I have ever seen in my life.  I believe the Auburn football team won in spite of him and his staff's horrific offensive coaching.  I congratulate defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin for another great job getting his unit ready to play.  They made some big mistakes but made more big plays.

I believe Auburn will beat Kentucky next week.  I believe Auburn could win or lose at Vanderbilt the next game.  I believe Auburn will then beat Mercer and lose in the Iron Bowl.  Auburn will end at 6-6 or 7-5 and go to a bowl game which I think they might actually win since it has been so long (Auburn hasn't been to a bowl game since 2021 and has only won bowl games in 2011, 2015, and 2018 since the 2010 national championship).  I believe this season will then be hailed as a major improvement and Hugh Freeze will give a sermon about perseverance.  I believe a large number of Auburn fans will forget about the horrendous coaching and losses from this season and start looking forward to next season.

I believe in the midst of all this false optimism a number of key players will leave the program.  I believe Cam Coleman will leave.  I believe at least another one of the better wide receivers will leave.  I believe a number of key defensive players we can't afford to pay will leave for the money.  I believe there is a good chance D.J. Durkin will leave.  The majority of the offensive line are seniors and will be gone and I believe they will not be replaced by better players.  I believe the football team Auburn starts next season with will not be as good as the football team this season.  It may not be close.  I believe Auburn will have a new offensive coordinator trying to implement a new system in the middle of all this.

I believe in spite of that our evidently do-not-care-about-winning top boosters, our moronic administration, Hugh Freeze, and a number of our non-competitive fans will actually go into next season expecting a better days...  The 2026 Auburn football team will then run straight into the new nine game conference schedule which they will start by playing five of those nine games on the road against Bama, Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State with home games against LSU, Florida, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas plus playing Baylor in Atlanta (a home game our brilliant athletic director willingly gave away) and two cupcakes.  Again I believe Auburn will enter that meat grinder of a schedule with a lesser team and the worst x's and o's coach I have ever seen. 

I believe with all that said that next season will be much worse than this one and Auburn will regret not going ahead and firing Hugh Freeze and possibly getting a new coach in place.  All I have heard is how hard it would be to try and hire another coach this year, well wait till the team is worse and the program is in even a lower spot.  It will be harder.  Finally, I believe this will set an already struggling program back even more especially now that Auburn not only has to go on the road to both Bama and Georgia every other year but must also play their five road conference games in those years.  Great job athletic director.  I apologize for a depressing and hopeless post but I call it like I see it.  I hope I am wrong... but I am not.

2025 GAME 7 REVIEW: Another One Bites The Dust

Missouri 23  Auburn 17.  The Hugh Freeze era at Auburn is over.  He might get to coach a few more games but he will not be the coach at Auburn next year.  He might not be the coach tomorrow or next week but I doubt it because I think it would be better for Auburn to dismiss him today which means that is what will not happen.  Unfortunately as I said last week I have as much confidence in our ex-Mississippi State baseball coach athletic director as I do in Hugh Freeze.  What is my evidence to back up that opinion?  One name...  Mike Leach.  I do not mean any disrespect to Leach or want to tarnish his memory but his offense was never going to work in the SEC and that was proven.  I have serious reservations about anybody who would have hired him to lead an SEC program.

Unfortunately that is the guy tasked with hiring yet another head football coach at Auburn.  I can give you a preview of what I am going to say when Auburn does hire another football coach...  I am going to write that I assume he is going to be another terrible coach no matter how good he looks at the moment till he proves otherwise.  I have written nauseatingly bad posts here at STR on both Harsin and Freeze when they were first hired.  They are positive and optimistic and were completely wrong.  I am not going to write another one of those I can tell you that.  The early returns from Auburn boards are definitely inconclusive.  There are champions for every realistic and unrealistic candidate.  I will not waste time arguing the merits of so many "possible" coaches. 

The bottom line is Auburn better hire a good one or the Tiger football program will finish a complete decade down and out.  The secondary concern is mitigating the damage of changing coaches, i.e. losing every good player you have.  That is why, in my opinion, I would fire Hugh Freeze today and make defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin head coach to rally the troops and get a few wins which would produce some positivity around the program.  The current negativity that completely envelopes the program will only grow thicker as the losses pile up under Freeze.  I have heard the opinion that you do not want to do this because then you have to hire Durkin if he wins a few games.  I disagree with that argument and think getting a few wins is more important.  

Let me say that again, I think getting a few wins in this lost season is more important than letting Hugh Freeze play out the string while the powers-that-be "work behind the scenes".  I think you need decisive action right now and people need to see how good this team can be with Freeze out of the picture.  I do think Auburn would win a few with him simply gone.  Auburn invents ways to lose under his leadership and last night was actually the worst so far.  Auburn was far better than Missouri and had the game basically won.  The game actually came down to one play.  ONE PLAY.  Yes we can talk about dropped passes, missed field goals, and more penalties but once again like last week it really came down to ONE PLAY.  That one play summed up why Hugh Freeze is a failure at Auburn.

Auburn was up 14-10 and had the ball with eleven minutes left in the fourth quarter and it was third down at the ONE YARD LINE.  It was just like last week, one yard from victory except this time it was a lot later in the game so this really would seal the win.  You are Hugh Freeze.  You are hanging on at Auburn by your very fingertips.  Your career hangs in the balance.  The chance to bring your team and the fans a big win is there for the taking.  You could sense it.  IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS.  I am calling a time out, yes wasting a time out because the game can be won right here.  I am gathering the entire offense around me and I am challenging them with everything I have got to GET THAT YARD.  GET THE WIN.  RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW.  EVERYTHING YOU HAVE GOT.

Instead he just meekly lined up in the shotgun and handed the ball off to Jeremiah Cobb who took a four yard loss and Auburn had to settle for a field goal which gave Missouri the chance to tie the game late and send it into overtime where they won it.  The game should have been won at this point and that is where it all really ended for Hugh Freeze.  He is a soft finesse coach and that is what makes him a loser.  This is the second week in a row he has lost a game because of this.  I pointed out Auburn had it second and goal at the two yard line against Georgia last week before the fumble drive.  However Auburn took a four yard loss there and settled for a field goal too.  I believe these two goal line plays are the biggest reasons Auburn has lost the last two games and the main reasons Hugh Freeze should be fired immediately.

2025 GAME 6 REVIEW: A Tale of Two Halves

Georgia 20 Auburn 10.  This is a tough one.  In fact, one of the worst in this decade, and that is saying something.  There are a lot of different factors to this game that have to be looked at.  They all came together to form another gut wrenching loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.  I sit here and shake my head as I write this.  The record is now three wins in twenty one years against Georgia.  The best rivalry in college football that twenty years ago had the series record exactly even.  Heck even the points scored by both teams were exactly even!  Since that point in time this rivalry has digressed to a point that College Gameday does not even bother picking it.  I am not even sure what kind of rivalry it is anymore since Georgia wins every time.  This one though was worse than usual because of...

THE OFFICIATING

The bias against Auburn by SEC officials is an absolute fact.  Review the games.  This is not a homer fan just complaining about a few calls.  This is now gotten to a point that to win a game Auburn does not have to just beat the other team but they will have to overcome multiple egregiously bad calls.  I mean it has gotten so bad that I actually did not get as upset as many people last night because I just expect it now.  Let us start with the actual worst call of the night even though it was not as crucial...  Kirby Smart came running down the sidelines in the second half clearly calling a timeout to avoid a delay of game penalty... and then somehow successfully argued he was just clapping and was awarded an actual "redo" of the play and did not lose a time out (?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????????).  In fifty years of watching football I have never seen anything like that.  

I will save the "The Fumble" for last so the next call was the targeting call on Kaylin Lee helping Georgia's drive at the end of the first half.  Here is the problem with that call...  first lets say yes it was close and it is a judgement call but it could be called targeting so call it there.  HOWEVER when a Georgia player leads with his helmet later you absolutely have to call that.  They did not.  In that case you should not have called it either time.  On the one against Auburn you could clearly see that Lee was trying to hit Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton with his shoulder but Stockton lowered his head.  On the same theme they called a key pass interference penalty on Rayshawn Pleasant where yes he grabbed him a bit but they did not call it on Georgia for doing the same thing.  Again you have to be consistent.

Finally, we have the fumble.  All I can say is that if the same thing happened to Bama, Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, etc... that call would have been overturned and it would have been called a touchdown.  That is not an opinion but an absolute fact and no matter what your allegiance is you know it is true.  What is the point of instant replay if that is not a touchdown?  I mean a touchdown after a clear catch and fumble was taken away from Auburn at Oklahoma (the same type play was called a catch for Oklahoma later in game), Oklahoma was allowed to score a touchdown on a clear illegal play that the SEC admitted was so after the game.  Auburn now in this game had another touchdown taken away with this "fumble" even though something was clear on instant replay.  Those calls all gave or took away touchdowns.  

It sure seems like there is a clear directive to SEC refs that all critical close calls go to the other team no matter what (Auburn still gets some calls just none of the critical ones).  I mean if commissioner Greg Sankey did not want Hugh Freeze back in the SEC this bad I wish he would have just officially banned him rather than punishing the players and fans like this.  I know that is going deep "conspiracy theory" but when things have gotten this bad I am not sure what else to think.  Again if you think Auburn fans are crazy just imagine the calls I am talking about going against the teams I listed...  You know it would NEVER happen.  HOWEVER just like I did after the Oklahoma game I am still going to put more blame on...

THE COACHING

I said after Oklahoma executed the clearly illegal "hideout" play for a touchdown that yes as the SEC admitted afterward was as bad a call as you could make BUT if Auburn would not have screwed up the snap on a punt and given the ball to Oklahoma in scoring range I don't think they can run that play. A botched punt is bad coaching.  In the same vein, if Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold does not fumble the ball Auburn gets the touchdown or another chance and the refs are not allowed to make a judgement.  The bigger thing for me is you cannot fumble that ball there.  You have to take care of the things you can control and Auburn so much of the time under head coach Hugh Freeze have not and this is just another example.  You simply cannot fumble the ball there.

Auburn coaches and fans, including me, can complain about the officiating but like the Oklahoma game there were plenty of chances to win this game even considering the bad calls.  Everyone talks about the fumble but almost as big as the fumble play was Auburn's second drive of the game.  First though let me say kudos to the Auburn fans and students at this game, the place was deafening to start.  It came through just watching it on TV.  The team also came out with a lot of energy as well plus even more spurred on by the incredible crowd.  Auburn jumped all over Georgia scoring a touchdown on an impressive seven minute 75 yard drive.  The defense then stopped Georgia and Auburn got the ball back still on a high.  The offense then took off on a five minute drive to 2nd and 2 at the Georgia six yard line. 

THIS IS WHERE YOU WIN THE GAME.  This is well before the fumble.  Auburn had all the momentum and...  Damari Alston is stuffed for a four yard loss.  Auburn then gets one more chance to capitalize on this unbelievable start and momentum.  This is where you pull that special play you have up your sleeve that you have worked on the last two weeks for just this occasion!!!  That is what good coaches do but Hugh Freeze instead just ran Alston again and settled for the field goal.  There have been many such situations the last three seasons and this coaching staff has failed in all of them against good teams other than one game against Texas A&M.  However since Auburn is now 1-11 against ranked teams under Freeze I think we can safely call that game the exception to the rule.  

This all really began with not being able to stop a team on 4th and 31 to get an historically great win.  Auburn should be able to stop the Kansas City Chiefs on 4th and 31.  It started with that and Auburn under Hugh Freeze has continued to find ways to lose in just about every big game since then.  Of course after the fumble we got to see another staple of having Hugh Freeze as coach and that is his absolutely unacceptable moping and body language when things get tough.  I know as a coach at any level you have to exude confidence ESPECIALLY WHEN THINGS GET TOUGH.  The head coach is the leader and if he is out there looking like Freeze the team cannot win.  It is completely unacceptable and I cannot believe that he continues to do it.  The offense then only had 14 total yards in the entire second half till the last failed drive which pushed that total to only 40.  I mean that is beyond bad.

Finally, once again I have to point out like I have done all season and summarized in my last post...  Auburn cannot pass the ball.  Auburn cannot pass the ball.  Auburn cannot pass the ball.  Auburn probably would have won last night if Arnold doesn't fumble the ball capitalizing on great team and crowd energy but while those first few drives were successful last night they were certainly not a blueprint for continued success.  I think it was more about great energy and effort.  Those plays were all Gus Malzahn staples.  The passes were short swings or hitches.  There was NO DOWNFIELD PASSING.  Once the script ran out and things got tough Auburn like the last two games was COMPLETELY HELPLESS because they CAN... NOT... PASS... THE... BALL.  

Auburn has some great wide receivers but terrible coaching and nothing at quarterback.  I cannot even imagine how frustrated the Tiger wide receivers are.  What does a real passing game look like?  Just look at Auburn's biggest rivals this season.  Bama and Georgia are certainly not the juggernauts they have been.  That was plain to see as Georgia was absolutely there for the taking last night with Auburn's hot start.  Bama has also obviously struggled at times as well BUT both teams have the coaching where they can call an actual passing play where the quarterback drops back in the pocket, makes a read, and then delivers a down-the-field pass.  Regardless of the officiating, Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton had to drop back and hit some key down-the-field passes to win last night.  Bama quarterback Ty Simpson had to do the same yesterday at Missouri.  

Auburn under Hugh Freeze simply cannot do it.  They cannot call an actual passing play where the quarterback drops back in the pocket, makes a read, and then delivers a down-the-field pass.  They coaching is not there and Jackson Arnold cannot do it any way.  All the good starts like last night and running all over Baylor to start the season are not going to change the fact that a team can NOT win big games without being able to successfully execute passing plays like that.  I summed all of this up in my last post.  I have wrote about it win or lose every single game of this season.  It has been over 15 years of this bull**** as it started with Gus Malzahn and has continued under Hugh Freeze.  I am so sick of watching this stupid high school offense that I cannot adequately describe it anymore.  

I mean there is no question now, Hugh Freeze needs to go.  I know that no one at Auburn wants to start over again but it is what it is.  Auburn is not going to magically start being successful under Hugh Freeze.  He might luck up and win a big game here or there like he almost did last night but there will be no long-term success under this guy.  I believe this has been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt now.  He has also screwed up bad enough that even offering big sums of money it is going to be hard to talk big-time recruits or transfers into playing in this offense.  They can get good money and play in better offenses elsewhere.  He had his chance and he squandered it.  Auburn needs to get started as soon as possible because dragging this out and hoping Hugh Freeze turns it around will make things worse. 

However as we all know the big problem then becomes screwing up the next hire.  I hold our ex-Mississippi State baseball coach athletic director in just as low regard as I hold Hugh Freeze.  He made two terrible head football coaching hires at State plus he hired Freeze so why should I think he will do nothing but make ANOTHER BAD HIRE??????  That will make things even worse.  Also if we hire another Gus Malzahn disciple like Eli Drinkwitz or Rhett Lashlee I am officially retiring from watching Auburn football till they are gone and you will not have to suffer through reading my posts anymore.  I cannot watch years more of Gus Malzahn offenses which both of these teams run.  Missouri is doing a lot better than Auburn but when things got tough yesterday they also cannot pass the ball effectively.

I am sure though Missouri will look better next week playing a battered and dejected Auburn team coming off this most painful of losses led by Hugh Freeze...  The only question probably left in this Auburn season is how bad is it going to get?  However I guess there is still a small chance Freeze gets a few wins and buys himself more time.  I think the issue is settled but I know the Auburn administration will do anything to put off this tough decision.  Auburn now plays four teams that are not as good as the three they just lost to.  I did say earlier this season I thought it would come down to these next four games however I had no idea these last three losses would be this bad.