At the halfway point of the 2025 college football season, Auburn stands 3-3, including 0-3 in SEC play, after three straight losses to teams ranked in the top 10. The season-opening win at Baylor, which looks better and better each week, seems a long time ago as the Tigers' offense has struggled to put up yards and points in SEC play, scoring 37 total points in the three conference losses.
Using the midseason to give each SEC team a grade, The Athletic's Seth Emerson didn't take it easy on Hugh Freeze and his team, giving the Tigers a D+ heading into the second half of the regular season.
"The opening-week win at Baylor was good and still looks good. The three losses are all to Playoff contenders and were by 10 points or less. And two come with asterisks because of officiating, at least to Hugh Freeze and some others. It still feels disappointing because of the offense, which looked so promising with Jackson Arnold in the opener, but arrives at midseason as the second-worst in the SEC in yards per play.
Freeze is an offensive coach and has two good receivers (Cam Coleman and Eric Singleton), but he hasn’t been able to unlock Arnold. It’s Year 3 — the offense shouldn’t be the issue."
The offense shouldn't be the issue, as Emerson writes, but it has been, as the Tigers have failed to take advantage of solid defensive efforts in winnable games over the last three. Against Oklahoma, Arnold was sacked nine times, including three on the final possession, to end any threat. Against Texas A&M, Auburn mustered only 177 total yards, with the only touchdown coming after Xavier Atkins returned an interception to the 2-yard line.
In Saturday's loss to Georgia, it seemed Arnold and the Tigers were back on track, but they were only able to put up 40 yards and zero points in the final 30 minutes as the Bulldogs pulled out the 20-10 victory.
Freeze and company have another chance at getting back to the winning side of things this Saturday as they host No. 16 Missouri.