Hugh Freeze Echoes Familiar Message After Auburn's 0-4 Start to SEC Play

Following a 23-17 loss to the Missouri Tigers at home in double overtime, Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze remained adamant that Auburn is close to turning some of the close losses into wins. Unfortunately for Freeze, the team, and the Auburn faithful, you can’t spell close without lose.

"I know we're close, and I know we're gonna get over the hump,” Freeze said. “We're close, but I know people are tired of hearing it. I'm tired of saying it."

The fans are indeed tired of hearing it, with many of the Auburn faithful ready for athletic director John Cohen to pull the trigger and fire Freeze as soon as possible. And it’s not just the fans that are upset, either. Recruits are beginning to show concern about the Tigers.

“We’re just not making the plays offensively in the big moments,” 5-Star safety commit Bralan Womack said. “We’re taking sacks after sacks after sacks. Nothing’s changing.”

Womack was one of many Auburn recruits and commits at the game on Saturday, and for yet another SEC home game, the visitors saw a loss.

In Freeze’s tenure on The Plains, Auburn is a pitiful 2-8 at home in Jordan-Hare Stadium against SEC opponents, with the only wins coming against Texas A&M toward the end of 2024 and against a Mississippi State team in 2023 that finished last in the conference.

Every one of the eight losses has been by 10 points or less during that span, which means the Tigers are actually no closer to winning at home in SEC play than they were in year one of Freeze’s tenure.

Additionally, Freeze’s offense has stayed just as sluggish as in year one, a brutal indictment of the supposed offensive genius. Auburn averaged 23 points per game in SEC home games in 2023, 21.25 points per game in similar games in 2024, and is sitting at just 13.5 points per game in its two SEC home games in 2025. Even if all SEC games were included, the Tigers are still only averaging the same 13.5 points per game.

So, not only are the Tigers not closer than they have been in Freeze’s tenure, but the offense is actually regressing. Given the extreme infusion of talent on paper the offense has seen over the last two seasons, thanks to highly rated recruits and transfers such as Cam Coleman, Eric Singleton Jr, Jackson Arnold, and Xavier Chaplin, the drop off seems almost inexplicable.

If Auburn wants to compete in the SEC, the Tigers need to stop being close and start winning these easily winnable games. However, the current coaching staff simply seems incapable of doing so, consistently being out-coached and outplayed in competitive games.