14-in-14 2023: Auburn Tigers
Auburn saw the light and is looking for redemption under new head coach Hugh Freeze. Will the good will translate to wins?
By: Bossman Slim
It’s been a long few years on the Plains. The end of Gus Malzahn was ugly, and the Bryan Harsin tenure was even uglier. Those regimes are now in the rearview mirror, and hope springs eternal on Toomer’s Corner.
With Hugh Freeze at the helm, the Tigers are hoping to they can get back to the mountain top, and quickly. So how are things shaping up for 2023?
State of the Program: promising (6/12 biscuits)
Much wreckage was left in the wake of Bryan Harsin’s disastrous tenure at Auburn. The Tigers lost 6/7 and five straight in a stretch from September to early November, resulting in Harsin’s unceremonious dismissal after a 41-27 beating from a middling Arkansas team. Auburn was outscored by 98 points in those losses and barely escaped another L by beating Mizzou 17-13 when Missouri fumbled at the goal line in OT to let War Eagle escape with a win. The team showed some promise late in the year, playing for pride, which we’ll get into in a minute.
Even with the 5-7 disaster that was the 2022 season and the bad taste from the Harsin era, hopes are high on the Plains with the arrival of Hugh Freeze. The former Ole Miss coach has been born again and respawned like a Fortnite character on the Plains. Hired on November 28 after some high-profile Auburn flirting with Lane Kiffin, Freeze got right to work. He flipped 4-star Jackson State transfer WR Shane Hooks from Ole Miss and kept rolling from there. He reeled in the fifth-best portal class of the cycle, behind only LSU and Ole Miss in the SEC, flipping the roster in a matter of a few months.
While much has been made of the talent deficit at Auburn due to the recruiting woes at the end of the Gus Malzahn era and throughout Harsin’s tenure, don’t let that narrative fool you. Auburn still has dudes. According to Bud Elliot’s Blue Chip Ratio, the Tigers are still above the threshold for potential teams that can win a national championship. That probably won’t happen in year one of Hugh Freeze, but crazier things have happened at Auburn (how about year one of Malzahn, for instance). What we’re saying: this team is dangerous and will pop up and take down one or two teams they aren’t expected to compete with this year.
Finally, Auburn is united behind a vision for the program for the first time in a long time. Harsin was never really embraced on the Plains, and former AD Allen Greene’s hiring of the former Boise State coach was questioned from day one. Greene was replaced by Mississippi State AD John Cohen, who was hired by new president Christopher B. Roberts. Freeze is their man, and the fanbase is united behind him - and it will stay that way as long as the wins rack up. The Tigers also opened a shiny new football performance center in November which will pay dividends on the recruiting trail. Things are aligned on the Plains.
What went right in 2022
Not much. Auburn is a program that should compete among the elite. That is the expectation of the fanbase and a 5-7 season just doesn’t come close to cutting it, so there isn’t too much to highlight. However, the run game was potent at times with Tank Bigsby, Robby Ashford, and Jarquez Hunter, who combined for 2,348 yards and 24 TDs. That was behind some experienced bulldozers on the offensive line. The defense was porous much of the year but did flash in a couple games, including against LSU and Texas A&M, holding the Tigers to 21 and Aggies to 10 points.
The bright spot of the season came against Texas A&M when the team rallied around interim head coach and Auburn legend Cadillac Williams at Jordan-Hare. The atmosphere was electric, and the Tigers shocked the Aggies 13-10, showing grit that most teams don’t show after seeing their coach get fired. Most teams fold like a cheap lawn chair or Dick Contino’s accordion. The offense did just enough to win, but the defense stepped up, holding the Aggies to just 121 yards passing and under 100 yards rushing on the night.
What went wrong in 2022
How much time do you have? We won’t take too long on this, because we could write 2,500 words about the issues that plagued the Tigers last season. When your coach gets fired mid-year, you can bet that almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The passing game was non-existent for much of the year, as Robby Ashford and TJ Finley struggled to find a rhythm. Auburn finished dead last in the SEC, averaging just 172 YPG through the air. The other side of the ball didn’t fair much better. Though there were a couple of games that showed promise, the defense had more holes than a Krispy Kreme all year, giving up almost 400 total YPG and 29.5 points. That put Auburn at 98th out of 131 DI teams. Yikes.
What the Tigers need in 2023
The vision is there. The buy-in from the fanbase and administration is there. Now the program rebuilding begins. The biggest thing the Tigers need this year is for that buy-in to carry over to the locker room and the portal talent to mesh. How quickly will Freeze’s message sink in? Retaining Cadillac Williams on staff will go a long way in speeding up that process.
Auburn especially needs the transfers to mesh on the offensive line, which lost four starters and two backups. Auburn brought in four transfers to fill the spots, and they’re experienced - now they need to gel as a unit. They also need QB Payton Thorne (Michigan State) to pan out, as he is assumed to be the starter with Ashford likely taking over backup duties. With Jarquez Hunter returning, Thorne as QB1, some promising transfer targets and Freeze and new OC Phillip Montgomery guiding the offense, I’m not too worried about seeing improvement on that side of the ball.
The defense is the big question mark and will need to take significant strides if Auburn is to shake up the SEC West. Freeze hired Dave Aranda acolyte Ron Roberts away from Baylor and worked overtime in the portal to shore up the front seven, signing five defensive linemen and four linebackers. The secondary returns every starter from last year, which should make this group salty, especially at the corner spots with Nehemiah Pritchett and D.J. James. I expect this unit to improve significantly this season.
The Tigers especially need to jump up take one or two upsets and keep the momentum going. Taking down one or two from the likes of Texas A&M, Georgia, Alabama and LSU would go a long way in pushing Freeze’s program forward in year one and bolster their already improved recruiting (currently ranked 14th in the 247 Team Rankings).
How they can earn some extra biscuits
Let me know if you’ve heard this before: Auburn’s schedule is brutal, though it is more manageable than in past seasons. Such is life in the toughest division in college football. Here’s what their five-week stretch from late September to mid-October looks like: at Texas A&M, Georgia, Bye, at LSU, Ole Miss. That could easily be 0-4 or 1-3. If Auburn can come out of that stretch 2-2, it will go a long way in bolstering confidence for the future.
To earn some extra biscuits, the Tigers need to cash in a few upsets, finish over .500, and finish with a top-15 recruiting class.
It can be done.