Auburn Tigers football coach Hugh Freeze has seemingly all the pieces in place, with the biggest question coming at quarterback with Jackson Arnold after an up-and-down, but mostly down, debut season at Oklahoma, to make a College Football Playoff run during the 2025 season.
If Tennessee can do it with a far less talented defense and receiving corps and a QB in Nico Iamaleava who had the same struggles Arnold did last season, why not AU this time around?
CBS Sports' Will Backus wrote about Freeze having to "deliver" this fall with a "respectable" season -- proving that the expectations on the Plains are still not where there supposed to be heading into Freeze's third season.
"Freeze almost has to move up, right? Not that it's a guarantee, but more in the sense that, if the Tigers don't see some serious improvement, Freeze could be on the way out. As the rankings indicate, he's certainly been trending in the wrong direction. Going back to his last season at Ole Miss, he's 7-17 in SEC games. Auburn missed out on a bowl last season after barely making it to the postseason in Freeze's debut year on The Plains. He's done a good job upgrading Auburn's talent level, and he may have found the answer at quarterback in former five-star prospect and Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold. Arnold has plenty of weapons to throw it to, an experienced offensive line to play behind and a defense across the ball that should keep opposing scores low. The pieces are there for Freeze to have a respectable year. He just has to deliver," Backus wrote.
Freeze didn't set expectations much higher than a bowl game, and the legacy media appears to be following suit.
It seems Freeze is going to be coddled as Bryan Harsin's COVID-19-stricken first recruiting cycle and his inquiry-affected second one gets the blame.
Right up until the fanbase's frustrations grow loud enough for John Cohen to hand the reins over to DJ Durkin and find an offensive play-caller who can figure out what Freeze, Derrick Nix, and Kent Austin weren't able to last year.