The Auburn Tigers are 3-0 through the first three games of the 2025 season, something they were in Bryan Harsin's first season in 2021 and Hugh Freeze's first season in 2023. Those six-win campaigns were, unfortunately, the last two years AU made a bowl game.
Those seasons were different, though. Very different.
One team never had a chance to do much, given the circumstances. The other made goofy slip-ups that prevented that season from being an eight-win effort.
2021 was a rise, to 6-2 and ranked in the top 15, and a fall from the heavens to the underworld after a 20-3 one-sided beatdown at the hands of the Texas A&M Aggies, followed by Bo Nix's injury during the infamous blown 28-3 lead over Mississippi State that became an unfathomable 43-34 loss. An offseason of accusations and ugly realizations via an inquiry into Harsin's program made the fanbase quickly realize the wrong guy was in the seat.
2023 was a couple of ugly licks against more talented teams, and losses that were straight up stupid. On the latter point, look no further than a 28-10 loss to the New Mexico State Aggies as a four-score favorite. That goes the right way, and Auburn is at seven wins. None of the rest of their losses could be seen as "gimmes," but there were blown leads against the Georgia Bulldogs, Ole Miss Rebels, and Alabama Crimson Tide at home. That eighth win doesn't seem that far from grasp when you think back to how you felt under the East Central Alabama sky at Jordan-Hare Stadium two years ago watching those games unfold.
Freeze feels capable of it. His team felt capable of it last year after dispatching of a ranked Texas A&M Aggies team, 43-41 in quadruple overtime, in the home finale last November, just as it did during much of the Oklahoma Sooners and Mizzou Tigers matchups. Harsin never had the drive to bring his locker room together to achieve that, having a problematic double standard in his locker room.
Eight wins deemed a 'good season' for Auburn Tigers
Auburn Undercover's Phillip Marshall set the expectation of a good season for Auburn at eight wins.
"What would be a year to remember? They would tell you it is winning a championship, and they should. But that is a long way away, and the journey to get there is treacherous. Like every other SEC team, the Tigers must live in the moment. If they beat Oklahoma on the road, it won't mean they are bound for a championship. If they don't, it won't be a disaster. Either way, they'll have to return home and get ready for a trip to Texas A&M," Marshall wrote.
"It would not be realistic to say this Auburn team will win every game, but I have believed from the start and still believe that there is not a game it can't win. Auburn will win some of those games. And it will lose some of those games.
"For an Auburn team fighting back from the mess left behind by Bryan Harsin, 8-4 would be a good season. Anything more would be gravy. Anything else would be viewed as a disappointment."
Eight wins was the soft expectation before the season. It's a firm expectation now, mainly due to how good the team looked against its first Power 4 opponent on the road.
The Baylor Bears was a major test that the Tigers have already passed in Week 1. Knocking off one of the Sooners, Aggies, and Bulldogs would bring them very close to eight wins, assuming Freeze's teams have kicked the yips in games they should handle with little stress.
Eight wins is close. Closer than it's been since Gus Malzahn was in charge.