As defending champions, Auburn was intent to give the new season its all.
The Tigers started out strong--overpowering opponents like Utah State and Mississippi State by the skin of their teeth.
However, as the season continued on to offer more lethal opponents, their luck ran out--and fast.
Auburn is in the process of rebuilding. They're a young team that needs to accumulate experience.
They did that in 2011.
It'll take a few more years before Auburn reaches a seasoned status again, but the outcome will be well worth the wait.
"I think that becomes more evident when you take the time to really re-evaluate over a long period of time everything that you are doing which will be done at Auburn, and we will know more then," said coach Gene Chizik.
"Like I said, we are going to keep growing. We got a lot of experience this year for a lot of guys that will be invaluable moving forward, and we are just going to continue to grow."
Auburn's first season loss to Clemson was only the beginning of the Tigers' struggles. Auburn suffered loss after loss, falling to No. 6 Arkansas, No. 1 LSU, No. 12 Georgia and recently No. 2 Alabama.
"It's been a lot of ups and downs this season for 12 games, and we've had some really good things occur in our 12-game season, and we've had some disappointments," Chizik said.
Despite that fact, there are no sore losers here. There's always next year, and Chizik is well aware of that.
"It's my job as the head coach at Auburn to make sure that this program continues on the right path, and that will happen here," Chizik said. "We will continue to grow as a football team, no question about it.
"We will continue to move forward, and we are going to figure out what is next for us as a team, but more importantly, we are going to make sure as a program right now (we're) moving in the right direction, which again, I am very sure that's going to happen.
"Again, we had our moments, and we did most of the classic things you do in a football game against a great football team that allow you not to win.
"But, they played hard, and they kept fighting in there until the end, and that is what we expected them to do.
"So again, our goal from here is to make sure we grow and continue on a path that we know the Auburn football program is going to stay on."
It was obvious that the Tigers suffered from a poor defensive front and unorganized offense--things Chizik will ensure aren't 2012 issues.
"I think that a lot of the teams that we struggled against obviously were extremely good defensively," he said. "I don't think there is any question about that. We did the classic things that make you struggle on offense when you can't run the ball effectively, consistently.
"I don't think we protected the quarterback as well as we needed to, and then when we did protect the quarterback, I don't feel like we were very consistent in throwing the ball and completing balls and not dropping balls.
"It just seemed like we didn't get in any kind of rhythm as an offense, and, again, traditionally we have played really good offense here, but we struggled. There is no question about it, so I think it was all of the above."
Auburn will likely advance to a bowl game, but it has not yet been set in stone.
Several sports blogs have predicted Auburn will travel to Atlanta to participate in the Chick-fil-A Bowl or the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.
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