The Auburn Tigers can hang their hat on one thing from their 5-7 finish during the 2025 College Football season: they were the best of any losing team during the regular season, at least according to Gig Em Gazette's Graham Harmon.
While doing one final SEC Football power rankings from the season, with every team from the "It Just Means More" conference sitting on the sidelines ahead of the CFP title game, Harmon ranked Auburn at No. 11, ahead of the South Carolina Gamecocks, Florida Gators, Arkansas Razorbacks, Mississippi State Bulldogs, and Kentucky Wildcats.
Interestingly enough, Harmon called the Tigers the best 5-7 team, even though the Wildcats beat AU in November to expedite the cord-cutting on Hugh Freeze. Mississippi State, the Maryland Terrapins, the UCLA Bruins, and the Baylor Bears, the latter of which Auburn beat in Week 1, also went 5-7.
Harmon labeled the 2025 Tigers a "colossal disaster" and predicted Alex Golesh's program to be better than Freeze's dysfunctional locker room and improve during the 2026 season with USF Bulls transfer quarterback Byrum Brown running the show.
"The Tigers limped to the finish line this season after a lot of excitement before the year about their potential. They actually finished pretty well in rankings like SP+, but it’s only so much comfort to know that they were the best 5-7 team in the country," Harmon wrote.
"Just like in Fayetteville, the new coach in Auburn will have to do some work to build this team from the ground up. Most of the Tigers’ difference-makers— Cam Coleman chief among them— have gone out the door this transfer portal cycle, including all three of the top Auburn quarterbacks from this past year.
"The Tigers will probably be better off with USF’s Byrum Brown, who’s reuniting with Alex Golesh after the dynamic pairing worked out pretty well in Tampa. We’ll see if his game can translate to the SEC, but it can’t be worse than some of what we saw in this past year at the signal caller position for the Tigers.
"As far as evaluating this past year for Auburn, though, it really was nothing short of a colossal disaster. There were some near-big wins— on the road at Texas A&M and Vanderbilt, as well as the Iron Bowl— but disastrous losses like Kentucky were costly in many ways. This was a failing grade, full stop."
Harmon listed the Ole Miss Rebels at No. 1, the Texas A&M Aggies at No. 2, the Georgia Bulldogs at No. 3, the Alabama Crimson Tide at No. 4, and the Oklahoma Sooners at No. 5. Controversially, the 10-3 Texas Longhorns came in at No. 10, truly putting the "Gig'Em" in Gig Em Gazette.
Perhaps Golesh's group will reach single-digits in most SEC rankings come this time next year. There's at least hope he can do the right things coaching-wise to make up for the on-paper talent lost in the portal this January.