The Athletic Gives Auburn Its Flowers as Top Program 15 in 21st Century

The Auburn Tigers have been on an up-and-down roller coaster for most of the 21st century.

The Auburn Tigers are counting on the strong right arm of Jackson Arnold to bring them back to national relevance. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

When examining the Auburn Tigers of the past 25 years, several conclusions rise to the surface. As the program attempts to rise above a half-decade of poor play, remember where they began the century. 

The Tigers currently look like a team and culture that needs to work its way out of the gridiron sluggishness that set the program back and compounded poor decisions with shoddy recruiting. While the football program should not be where it currently resides, its history contains clues to reclaiming its spot on the national stage.

The Athletic didn’t fall victim to recency bias when discussing the top 25 teams of the 21st century. They ranked the Tigers 15th despite the roller-coaster ride Auburn has been on. 

"Arguably no program has experienced as many peaks and valleys this century as Auburn,” wrote Stewart Mandel of The Athletic. “The Tigers enjoyed undefeated seasons in 2004 and 2010, winning the national championship in the latter, and reached another national title game in 2013. But they’ve also won eight games or fewer in 15 of 25 seasons, had a 3-9 debacle in 2012, and have gone 5-7 or 6-7 each of the past four years."

The highs and lows Auburn has experienced have settled into a steady state of mediocrity as the Tigers have gone 28-33 over the last five seasons. Though there’s hope on The Plains headed into 2025.

Jackson Arnold could be the best quarterback since the early prime days of Bo Nix. Nix, in retrospect, and considering who played the position after him, did not play that badly on The Plains. He was the last quarterback to defeat the University of Alabama. 

Nix accounted for 57 touchdowns as a Tiger in three seasons. Arnold will possess the superior receiver corps. Granted, the team lost a big weapon in Jarquez Hunter, but the team can throw three or four backs at defenses to wear them down and combine to replace Hunter. 

Head coach Hugh Freeze knew it was going to take several years of excellent recruiting to get the roster back to a place where it was competing for championships. While not quite where they want to be, the Auburn Tigers look a lot closer to returning to a  top-15 program of the century.