Heading into his third year on the Plains, head coach Hugh Freeze still has a lot of work to do with the Auburn football program. The team has had back-to-back losing seasons under Freeze's direction, but has also seen successful recruiting efforts bolster the roster.
Things look a lot different heading into the 2025 season. The Tigers have a new-look quarterback room headed up by Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold, and a lot is riding on his success after two years where Payton Thorne couldn't truly figure it out. After years without any playmaking wide receivers, the Tigers have one of the best pass-catching groups in the country.
The only thing left for Freeze to do is to produce results on the field, and although that has yet to happen, Auburn Athletics Director John Cohen hasn't lost faith and sent a strong message on the future of Freeze and the program.
"What you can control is if our locker room has buy-in with Hugh Freeze and our coaching staff — the answer is unequivocally yes," Cohen said, per Auburn Undercover. "The second issue: Are we recruiting at a high level? The answer to that is yes. Hugh Freeze has come in and had back-to-back, top-10 recruiting classes, and he has held our locker room together.
"It is my opinion and my experience in the last 30-plus years, when those two things are happening in conjunction, you're going to have great success in the future. I really believe that. I believe we're doing all the things necessary."
As Cohen said, the locker room has bought in, recruits that come to visit campus are buying in, and there is a lot of optimism that things are progressing in the right direction for Auburn football. Whether the sentiment remains by December is yet to be determined.