It's been a tough few years for the Auburn football program. In the last five years, there has been a multitude of coaching changes, a lot of catching up to do on the recruiting trail, and not a lot to show for the team's efforts in the win column.
After the two-year disaster that was the Bryan Harsin era, there was a lot of optimism on the Plains for the arrival of Head Coach Hugh Freeze. Auburn football had dropped far below fan expectations, and there was a lot of work to be done to turn things around.
The recruiting part of that work has gone extremely well. Freeze and his staff have brought in two back-to-back top 10 recruiting classes and have secured strong transfer portal hauls both years, dramatically elevating the talent level on the Plains. But it has yet to translate to results, and it seems that Freeze's seat may be heating up as he enters his third season with the Tigers.
According to sixth-year senior offensive lineman Jeremiah Wright, there is still reason for hope.
"There may be one feeling outside our complex, but I can tell you there's a much different feeling inside our complex, what we're working toward and what Coach Freeze is building," Wright said, per ESPN. "We're a lot closer than people think to getting Auburn back to where it's supposed to be, and that's winning championships."
Still, the Tigers haven't won more than seven games since the 2019 season, and it has been more than three years since they were ranked in the AP Poll, which ESPN reports is the longest drought in 47 years. While everyone would love for Auburn football to compete for a championship again, a winning season after four years would be nice, too.