As summer rolls on and the college football season remains in the increasingly near future, talking season continues.
For Auburn, there’s plenty to talk about as head coach Hugh Freeze enters his third season with the program. He’s coming off a disappointing 2024 season, one in which Auburn finished 5-7, suffered its fourth straight losing season and missed a bowl game for the second time in three years.
While the Tigers added another top 10 freshman class and signed a solid group of transfers, expectations are still a little all over the places for Auburn. Athlon Sports predicts the Tigers to finish 11th in the Southeastern Conference and Lindy’s Sports has them slightly higher at ninth in their annual preview magazine.
While ninth in the SEC isn’t setting the world on fire, it’s five places higher than where Auburn finished in 2024. Lindy’s also has Auburn ranked No. 27 in its overall rankings going into the season.
Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Mississippi State are the teams picked by Lindy’s to finish below Auburn. Last season, only Kentucky and Mississippi State had a worse season in conference play than the Tigers.
“Freeze delivers his best SEC season since his Ole Miss tenure and knocks on Top 25 door,” Lindy’s wrote as its projection for Auburn in 2025.
However, what Lindy’s called the “bad news” for Auburn had to do with new quarterback Jackson Arnold, who transferred in from Oklahoma.
“If inconsistency continues for transfer QB Jackson Arnold, Auburn will be in trouble,” the magazine read.
Noting Freeze’s 11-14 record in his first two seasons with Auburn, he was included in Lindy’s temperature check section which evaluated a handful of coaches’ job security. Freeze’s seat was listed as “scorching.”
“Five wins in 16 games against SEC opponents is not good enough at Auburn, even when there’s good recruiting season news. So far, he’s duplicated Bryan Harsin numbers… so a winning season is the minimum for Year 3,” the magazine read.
A handful of Auburn players received individual honors by Lindy’s going into the season. Georgia Tech transfer receiver Eric Singleton Jr. was part of Lindy’s All-America second team and made the All-SEC first team.
Defensive end Keldric Faulk joined Singleton on the All-SEC first team, while receiver Cam Coleman and offensive lineman Jeremiah Wright made the All-SEC second team and Virginia Tech transfer offensive linemen Xavier Chaplin made the All-SEC third team. Coleman also received the “best hands” SEC superlative from Lindy’s.
Auburn will begin preseason camp in early August and open the regular season on Aug. 29 when it travels to Waco for a matchup with Baylor.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m