For every SEC program in the midst of a lull, a downturn, a rebuild or a flat-out trash year, there’s always this: No matter how rugged and rough your season may be, every weekend brings a new opportunity to wreck someone else’s.
This week’s spoiler candidate: the Auburn Tigers. Facing the University of Georgia for the 130th time there’s a reason they call this the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry the Tigers are in the midst of yet another underwhelming year. After starting 3-0, Auburn lost road conference games to both Oklahoma and Texas A&M, and now faces yet another ranked opponent in No. 10 Georgia.
That slate in itself would be enough to cause any coach heartburn, but add in the fact that 2025 marks the third straight less-than-stellar year from third-year head coach Hugh Freeze, and, well, there’s plenty of unrest on The Plains.
There’s also plenty of work to do if Auburn wants to keep Georgia from extending its winning streak to nine games, which would tie the longest in the series’ century-and-a-third history. The problem for the Tigers is that pretty much the entire team, on both sides of the ball and the sidelines, is underachieving. “Fix everything” isn’t really a strategy, and yet it’s what the Tigers must do, pronto.
After a strong first three games, the offense fell apart in virtually every category against Oklahoma and A&M, managing a combined 119 rushing yards while committing 14 penalties and allowing 15 sacks.
“This is not the offensive football that I’m used to, nor is anyone else, and it starts up front,” Freeze said at last week’s SEC teleconference. “We have to improve our technique, we have to improve our passion and strain, and we have to improve as coaches, the positions we’re putting them in and demand a disciplined effort in particular the things we can control, like pre-snap penalties.”
In the spotlight: quarterback Jackson Arnold, who hasn’t thrown an interception yet this year perhaps because he hasn’t thrown many contested throws this year. With receivers like Cam Coleman and Eric Singleton Jr. at his side, Arnold ought to be piling up much more impressive numbers, and Freeze never hesitant to criticize his quarterbacks believes that playing a little more freely will help Arnold.
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“First and second progressions [from Arnold] are pretty good, then he becomes a little hesitant. But we’re working through that, believing him strongly still,” Freeze said, adding that he’s spent the last week “coaching him to be freer, and when our guys are in some one-on-ones, give them a chance with catchable balls.”
There’s a whole lot riding on the Georgia game. If Freeze starts 0-3 in SEC play, with ranked Missouri next week and ranked Vandy three weeks after that, will he still be around to play ranked Alabama in the Iron Bowl? Freeze’s buyout is in the neighborhood of $16 million, significant but well within the reach of Auburn’s well-heeled and extremely volatile donor base.
“I don’t worry about noise. I think that’s probably the biggest thing you worry about with your players is just noise that truthfully has very little significance on whether or not we’ll win a game,” Freeze said. “You stay in the fight together until the bitter end, and I think good things will start happening for this team.”
There’s precedent here for a miracle victory. Jordan-Hare Stadium at night is always a difficult environment for any opponent, and Georgia has ended on the wrong end of two memorable (semi-) recent night games. Back in 2013, just weeks before the Kick Six, Auburn executed the Prayer in Jordan-Hare to beat Georgia on a tipped pass that became a game-winning touchdown. Four years later, Auburn blew out then-No. 1 Georgia, 40-17 a classic Toomer-tree-rolling victory and, as it turned out, the Tigers’ last one over the Dawgs to date.
“Everything is still in front of us, and it starts with an incredible rivalry game that you ought to just relish the opportunity to play in,” Freeze said Monday. “I know our [home crowd] people will be a factor in this game, and that will be nice, as we have not experienced that the last couple of weeks.”
Is there another such miracle in the works for Saturday night? Hoping for miracles is no way to run a football program, but Auburn is fast heading in that direction.