Embarrassing Stat Shines Light on Auburn's Football Struggles

Alex Golesh will hope to do something in his first year that Auburn's previous two head coaches failed to do in their entire tenures.

The Auburn Tigers' postseason success has been nonexistent in recent years. | Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

It’s no secret that the Auburn Tigers have struggled immensely in recent years, with coaches being hired and fired, hype being built and burnt down, and no real results seeming to come from the immense effort that goes into building an SEC football program. A new stat has found the light of day, though, showing just how bad the Tigers have actually been.

The Auburn Tigers have not won a bowl game since 2018, marking the longest active drought in the SEC. The next longest is Texas A&M, which, despite two bowls and a College Football Playoff appearance, has not won a bowl game since 2020.

The most recent bowl win for each SEC school! pic.twitter.com/M8sLkiTcDa

— College Football Zone (@CollegeFBonX) January 21, 2026

So, what’s gone so wrong for Auburn since Gus Malzahn’s Tigers took down the Purdue Boilermakers in the 2018 Music City Bowl?

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In 2019, Gus Malzahn led the Tigers to a 9-4 record, but his team fell to the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Outback Bowl, 31-24. 2020 was a shortened year for the Tigers, as COVID-19 ravaged the globe and caused all sports to play on a shortened schedule, but Malzahn still managed a 6-5 record before falling to Northwestern in the Citrus Bowl in what would be his final game at the helm.

The Tigers then fired Malzahn, opening the door for a new coach to take the reins of the program, but they’ve not been able to find success with a coach since. Harsin still had Bo Nix, a quarterback recruited by Gus Malzahn who had much success with the Tigers in his first few years, but the Tigers struggled immensely, finishing the 2021 season with a 6-7 record. It was the first season the Tigers had posted a losing record since 2012, the year before Malzahn was hired.

Six wins were still enough to make a bowl game, a decent start for Harsin’s first year at the helm, but his Tigers fell to the Houston Cougars in the 2021 Birmingham Bowl, 17-13. 

Things didn’t get better for Harsin after 2021. Nix transferred to Oregon, where he had incredible success and was drafted with the 12th pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, leaving Harin to improvise. His solution was a two-quarterback system of TJ Finley and Robby Ashford, with which the Tigers went 5-7 and didn’t make a bowl game.

Harsin was fired before the conclusion of the 2022 season, so legendary Auburn running back Cadillac Williams took his place in the interim, posting a 2-2 record. Many Tigers chose to leave the Plains at that point, making the personnel hole even deeper for a Tiger team that had struggled to find its way in recent years.

Things seemed to look up for the Tigers in 2023, though, as Hugh Freeze stepped up to the plate as the next head coach.

Freeze promised success to a Tiger fanbase traumatized by the Harsin meltdown, stringing together the 19th-ranked recruiting class and the fourth-best transfer class in the nation, headlined by four-star defensive lineman Keldric Faulk. He also signed Michigan State transfer quarterback Payton Thorne to lead his offense.

Despite recruiting dominance, Freeze’s first year on the Plains didn’t go exactly to plan. The Tigers went 6-6 in the regular season, losing to the Maryland Terrapins in the Music City Bowl. 

Freeze wasn’t ready to give up, though, and in 2024, he once again put together a top-level recruiting class, this time headlined by the “Freeze Four,” a group of the best receivers in the recruiting class: Cam Coleman, Malcolm Simmons, Perry Thompson and Bryce Cain.

Freeze’s 2024 class also boasted high-level quarterback talent, including four-star Walker White, and it seemed like Freeze had finally dug the Tigers out of the personnel hole Harsin had put them in. All that was left now for the Tigers was to utilize all of this talent.

Unfortunately for Freeze, it wasn’t that easy. Payton Thorne struggled with interceptions in key moments, his top-level receiving talent was dormant for the majority of the season, and when the smoke cleared, the Tigers finished the season 5-7 and missed out on a bowl game.

Freeze gave it one last effort in 2025, putting together his best recruiting class yet, a sixth-ranked class boasting top talent like five-star defensive lineman Malik Autry and four-star quarterback Deuce Knight. He also managed to snag Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold from the transfer portal on his way to having the eighth-ranked transfer class in the nation.

Without a doubt, Freeze’s 2025 Tigers were one of the most talented squads the university had ever seen, and the Tigers’ defense reflected that quality. Led by DJ Durkin, the Tigers never allowed more than 24 points in all but two games. Surely, with all this offensive talent and such a strong defense, Freeze would finally have his winning season, right?

It seemed like nothing could possibly go to plan for Freeze’s 2025 Tigers, who, despite being “so close” for the majority of the season, couldn’t seem to find a way to win big matchups. Arnold was sacked more than any other quarterback in college football, while the rushing attack was nearly nonexistent, leading to yet another disappointing season for the Auburn faithful.

It wasn’t meant to be for Freeze, who was fired after his Tigers fell to 4-5 with a 10-3 loss to the struggling Kentucky Wildcats. DJ Durkin, the mastermind behind Auburn’s defense, took over, and despite much better offensive efficiency, the Tigers dropped two games to both the Vanderbilt Commodores and their rival, Alabama.

The Tigers finished the season 5-7, missing out on a bowl game for the second year in a row.

Once again, the Tigers found a new head coach, this time in the form of Alex Golesh, the former coach of the USF Bulls. That didn’t seem to be enough for the vast majority of Freeze’s stars, though, as three of the “Freeze Four” transferred away amidst a record year of 38 exits from the program.

The Tigers are back to square one yet again, yet Alex Golesh promises success, just as his predecessors did. He’s brought in top-level talent, including quarterback Byrum Brown and running back Bryson Washington, so all that remains for this year’s squad is to see what this team can do as the 2026 season begins.

One thing’s for sure, it can’t be worse, right?