Kentucky Downs Auburn After Musical Chairs at QB Fails Hugh Freeze

The Auburn Tigers hosted the Kentucky Wildcats for Auburn’s first game of November and ninth of the 2025 season. Stanford transfer Ashton Daniels got the start at quarterback for the first team this season, with Jackson Arnold sent to the bench. Despite the change, Auburn and head coach Hugh Freeze left Jordan-Hare Stadium with a 10-3 loss and a 4-5 record after another pitiful offensive showing.

The first quarter of the game was truly exhilarating as the two squads traded punts for five drives, three for the Tigers and two for the Wildcats. The two teams combined for 111 yards in the first quarter, and that level of offensive futility would set the tone for the game to come.

Kentucky opened the game’s scoring on the first drive of the second quarter with a 42-yard field goal by kicker Jacob Kauwe. Each team punted again, and on the next Auburn drive, the Tigers finally managed to make it into Kentucky territory. However, the Tigers proceeded to turn the ball over on downs after Daniels was sacked on 4th and 6.

Thankfully for the Tigers, Kentucky quarterback Cutter Boley was apparently still in the Halloween spirit. The Wildcats’ quarterback tossed an interception that was thrown so directly at linebacker Elijah Melendez that Boley might as well have been giving out candy.

The interception set the Auburn offense up inside Kentucky territory, and the Tigers drove all the way inside the Kentucky 10-yard line before being forced to settle for a 27-yard field goal by Alex McPherson to tie the game at 3. The game would enter the half tied at 3, tied for the lowest combined halftime point total this season in an SEC game with the Vanderbilt-Missouri game on Oct. 25.

At the half, Auburn had 117 total yards, 42 passing yards, a 3-8 third-down conversion rate, and 4 punts. The entire third quarter saw just two completed drives. The first was a 10-play, 75-yard march by the Wildcats that burned nearly six minutes of clock. The drive was capped by a 13-yard receiving touchdown by Kendrick Law.

Auburn took over next, and burned over six minutes of clock on a 10-play drive of its own. However, unlike the Kentucky drive before it, the Tigers’ drive would end in a punt after just 43 yards. Kentucky took over and mirrored the Auburn drive, moving the ball 46 yards on 10 plays before punting back to the Tigers.

At that point, Freeze decided he had seen enough of Daniels, benching the Stanford transfer for Jackson Arnold, who had been benched during the Arkansas game for Daniels the week prior. Arnold’s first drive at the helm would start fast, as the Tigers mustered two quick first downs. However, the Auburn offense stalled again, and the Tigers punted for the sixth time.

Arnold’s second drive looked painfully familiar to the rest of SEC play, as he was sacked on second and third down to force a seventh punt by Hudson Kaak. Boley launched his second pick of the night on the ensuing drive, this time to Anquon “Newboy” Fegans. However, Fegans fumbled on the return and Kentucky retained possession.

Auburn forced another Kentucky punt despite the fumble, and Daniels took the field again at quarterback for the final drive, re-replacing Arnold. Shockingly, the second quarterback change of the night didn’t work, and the Tigers suffered a 10-3 loss. The loss is Auburn’s first while allowing 10 points or less since 1991 against Southern Miss.

Kentucky’s first five SEC opponents of 2025 averaged 34.4 points per game and 380.8 yards per game. Auburn managed just 3 points and 241 yards on the night.

Daniels and Arnold combined for 123 passing yards, with Daniels accounting for the vast majority of them with 108. Auburn averaged just three yards per carry as a team, and Jeremiah Cobb led the team in rushing with 72 yards on 20 attempts. Auburn quarterbacks were sacked seven times by a Kentucky team that had just 11 sacks on the season entering the night.

The loss drops Auburn to 4-5 and 1-5 in SEC play in 2025, and there have been zero signs of improvement from an offense that seems to get more and more lethargic each week. The performance, or lack thereof, will do nothing to help the noise around Freeze and his staff heading into the next week. The Tigers will travel to Nashville, Tenn., on Nov. 8 to take on a Vanderbilt team that is coming off its second loss of the season at Texas on Saturday.

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