Resident SEC expert Paul Finebaum raised an interesting question that unfortunately involved Auburn football.
His inquiry?
Who was the most surprising losing team during the 2021 college football season…
And wouldn’t you know it, the Tigers were among the schools he listed:
Which of these schools having a losing season surprised you the most and why?
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) January 5, 2022
LSU
Texas
Auburn
USC
North Carolina
Nebraska (just kidding)
What makes this past season sting so sharply for Auburn football was how happy the highs felt before things hit the fan and the gridiron became a tragic distraction from Bruce Pearl’s Final Four hopefuls.
The loss to Georgia was painful but ultimately expected. Penn State barely squeaked past AU in their big ‘White Out’ game and maybe wouldn’t have had Zakoby McClain not been egregiously ejected for a phantom targeting call. Besides those two losses, the Tigers looked like they were heading towards at least winning season after defeating LSU and Arkansas on the road and halting any Ole Miss CFP momentum at Jordan-Hare Stadium in October.
But 6-2 was the best things were going to get in 2021. November was a win-less bloodbath and the Birmingham Bowl cast dark clouds over the 2022 QB room.
Does all this make Auburn the most surprising losing team? Well, actually, there’s one team out there that was more of a season-long disappointment and had a losing record by the middle of the year…
LSU was a more surprising losing team in 2021 than Auburn football
Auburn was instilling a new head coach and offensive system in 2021. LSU did not have the same excuses, and wasn’t even two years removed from a national championship.
After starting the season 3-3, which included the first loss to AU in Death Valley since 1999, LSU dismissed Ed Orgeron. They lost three straight to Ole Miss, Alabama, and Arkansas before needing a Week 13 upset over Texas A&M to even qualify for a bowl game.
While, sure, the Bayou Tigers lost their starting QB (Myles Brennan) for the second year in a row to injury, and also lost Kayshon Boutte in October, the early losses to UCLA, Auburn, and Kentucky were the final nails in the coffin of ‘Coach O’ and co.
Expectations were higher in Baton Rouge than on the Plains, and thus, their futility is far more surprising…especially since they were pegged to compete with the top of the SEC West by most national pundits, unlike Auburn.