CBS Sports Projects Auburn Football to Make This Bowl Game in 2026

The Auburn Tigers have been on one of the worst stretches in program history since 2020, as the team has not turned in a winning season since before COVID-19’s horrific run on the sport and the globe. However, the winds appear to be changing on the Plains, and CBS Sports believes that Auburn will do something this year that hasn’t happened since 2023: make a bowl game.

This projection, courtesy of Brad Crawford, sees the Tigers matching up in the Birmingham Bowl against UTSA. Though this may not be the most exciting matchup or bowl for the Tigers to be a part of, simply getting to a bowl in 2026 would be leaps and bounds better than what Tiger fans have become accustomed to in the Hugh Freeze era.

What makes the Tigers’ lack of bowl games that much more painful is the fact that Auburn, on paper, has consistently boasted some of the best rosters in the country, especially under Hugh Freeze’s top-level recruiting abilities. However, despite so much talent on the roster, the Tigers struggled to emerge victorious on any given week, so winning six games was a tall–and nearly unachievable–order for a Freeze-led team.

Conversely, this year’s Tigers, particularly on offense, are not especially strong on paper. Sure, the Tigers have a great quarterback option in Byrum Brown, who was the only FBS quarterback last year to rush for over 1,000 yards on top of over 3,000 passing yards, but there have been plenty of concerns as to how his physical playstyle will adapt to the SEC.

At running back, the Tigers are strong with Jeremiah Cobb, but there has been quite a bit of discourse as to who will be the RB2 and beyond, especially since Bryson Washington is still working to get into shape for the season, just two weeks from the first kick.

The receiver room is where the Tigers have been hit the hardest, as all five of their best receivers departed alongside Freeze, leaving Golesh to supplement the room with many USF transfers, who are under much of the same scrutiny as Brown at this point in the offseason.

The offensive line is, by far, the biggest question surrounding the Tigers’ offense, and, at this point in the offseason, we’re still not sure who is leading in the race to be a starter in this unit. However, despite the fact that this team is, admittedly, much worse on offense than last year’s team, they appear to have one thing that Freeze teams struggled with: discipline.

Alex Golesh has been running a tight ship on the Plains, and a recent viral moment even revealed that he has been lording over his players’ dress, all the way down to their underwear. This level of discipline bodes quite well for this team, which will need all of it if they want to be successful in a new nine-game SEC slate this year.

So, despite the fact that this team, on offense, looks a fair bit worse than the 2025 team on paper, expectations are still high on the Plains due to Golesh’s unique philosophy of coaching, which could very well propel the Tigers to meet Crawford’s projection–or even, potentially, beyond.

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