The Auburn Tigers just completed what CBS Sports' Brandon Marcello calls the "worst" period in the history of its football program. From 2021-2025, AU went 22-28 under Bryan Harsin, Hugh Freeze, and the two interim coaches who took over after their firings, Cadillac Williams and DJ Durkin.
Marcello gave the 2025 season a "D-" grade, but stressed it wasn't the players who were to blame. To Marcello, JABA was the true culprit. According to Marcello, every Tiger fan should forget that the era ever happened.
"The early 2020s will go down as one of the worst in Auburn football history. The Bryan Harsin Experiment failed miserably, and the answer to those problems was to hire a coach who, 10 years ago, beat Nick Saban. Turns out you can't turn back the clock with Hugh Freeze, whose repeated insistence that Auburn was "close" to being good was akin to nails on a chalkboard. He failed to identify quarterback talent, never developed the roster and clung tightly to defensive coordinator DJ Durkin to carry the team to wins. Predictably, he was fired before he could finish Year 3. Durkin stepped in as interim coach, and more of the same occurred. Let's forget this era ever happened, Tigers," Marcello wrote.
Jackson Arnold escapes escapes scrutiny because of Hugh Freeze
It's hard not to look at Durkin's unit's production on the defensive end and think that this season was capable of being so much more than a "D-." The Tigers were predicted to be a CFP contender before the season, but with a key caveat:
Jackson Arnold needed to deliver on the promise he brought to the Plains as a former five-star quarterback out of John H. Guyer High School in Denton, Texas. That certainly didn't happen, and it led to the program's downfall.
Since Bo Nix, Auburn has mostly missed at QB, though Robby Ashford and Payton Thorne both looked like they could've done more with better protection in front of them. Arnold had more talent around him than both of them, but looked considerably worse.
Arnold got some heat when Freeze was fired, but few will remember him as the main problem because Freeze's offense made Ashton Daniels look helpless in a 10-3 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats instead.
Freeze was not the right guy for the job, but neither was Arnold. Freeze chose Arnold, but he wasn't the one over-/underthrowing to receivers or getting taken down in the backfield constantly.