Now 22 games into Hugh Freeze’s tenure as Auburn’s head coach, following Saturday afternoon’s 17-7 loss to Vanderbilt, the second-year coach sits at a 9-13 overall record and 4-10 in conference play with just a trio of games remaining in the 2024 campaign.
The Tigers are now 2-9 in their last eleven games against FBS teams — for the second time in the last four seasons with Auburn experiencing a similar stretch during the 2021-22 seasons. The program also now has had six or more losses in four straight seasons for the first time since a stretch from 1927-30.
From a pure win-loss perspective, to say Freeze’s start has been a disaster on the field would be accurate. But, as many would quickly point out, context, particularly the situation Freeze inherited, is important to recognize.
In the three seasons prior to Freeze’s return to the SEC, Auburn had a combined record of 17-19. The Tigers signed just 12 four-star recruits, per 247 Sports, under Bryan Harsin’s leadership – the 2021 and 2022 classes. For comparison, Auburn’s upcoming 2025 class has 15 four or five star players committed to the program.
From Auburn’s original 2021 high school class, which is this season’s seniors, just one player is still on the Tigers’ roster, running back Jarquez Hunter.
Given the program’s state upon his arrival, it’s understandable that it might take Freeze, who has had eight seasons with eight or more wins as an FBS head coach – with only one losing season in 2016 prior to taking the Auburn job, a bit more time than at previous stops to meet the on-field expectations that a program of Auburn’s caliber demands.
In many ways, this almost two year experiment for the Tigers and Hugh Freeze has been experienced before. The last time an Auburn head coach started 9-13 through his first 22 games was Ralph ‘Shug’ Jordan.
Yes, you read that right. The man the school named its stadium after started his tenure with back-to-back losing seasons and just three conference wins 22 games in.
Similar to, but frankly far worse than, Freeze’s predecessors, Auburn’s combined record in the three seasons before Jordan took the helm the Tigers went 2-22-4 – including a winless campaign in 1950.
Jordan’s first season at Auburn inspired confidence with wins against two SEC opponents, Vanderbilt and Florida, in the first three weeks. The Tigers would finish the 1951 campaign with a 5-5 (3-4 SEC) record, which considering the team didn’t win a single game the season prior wasn’t a bad start.
The Tigers did lose their final four games of the 1951 season, a sign of things to come in Jordan’s second season at Auburn.
Following the .500 campaign, Jordan and the Tigers went 2-8 (0-7 SEC) in 1952 – losing six of their last seven matchups. After beating conference foes Florida and Tulane by a combined 22 points in 1951, Auburn lost those matchups by a combined 25 points.
It's all too similar to the step backwards that Freeze and the Tigers are experiencing this season. Following a .500 regular season in 2023, Auburn sits at 3-6 overall and with just a lone conference win with three games remaining.
After beating Cal, Arkansas and Vanderbilt on the road last season by 58 combined points the Tigers lost to the same three opponents at home this season by a combined 27 points.
So what changed for Jordan’s program from 1952 to 1953 that turned a 2-8 (0-7 SEC) team into a 7–3–1 (4–2–1 SEC) campaign that ended in Auburn getting an invitation to the Gator Bowl – the program’s first bowl bid in 16 years and third ever bowl trip?
By the 1953 season, the Tigers had an experienced quarterback in Vince Dooley, future legendary Georgia head football coach, who had played under Jordan since the 1951 season.
After appearances in the 1951 season, Dooley took over the quarterback position in 1952 but injuries kept him out of several contests in what was ultimately a lost season for the Tigers. The 1953 season provided the senior captain the opportunity to complete 25 of his 47 pass attempts for the season and win the offensive MVP of the Gator Bowl in the losing effort.
The 1953 season set the trajectory for Jordan to compile 12 straight winning seasons for Auburn, culminating with a national championship in 1957.
Unfortunately for Freeze in 2024, Auburn won’t have the same developmental trajectory that Dooley did under Jordan’s first two seasons. Payton Throne, Auburn’s starting quarterback the last two seasons, can’t return and the rest of the position group has no more than one and a half games played at the collegiate level.
"Payton's played pretty solid, but at the same time, you start thinking big picture," Freeze said today on the SEC coaches teleconference with three games remaining on Auburn’s 2024 schedule.
"That's a tough quandary for you as a coach — when you start thinking big picture, as opposed to one of your players that really hasn't done anything wrong," Freeze said. "But we certainly aren't winning. And so we're debating all of that this week and we'll continue into next week debating that."
Whether Auburn makes a ‘big picture’ change at the quarterback spot to position the program for the future or finishes the 2024 campaign with Thorne, it appears Freeze and his staff have a tall task ahead to achieve a 1953-like turnaround.
Ultimately, only time will tell if history will rhyme again for Freeze and Jordan.
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Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
