Biggest takeaways from Auburn's appearance at SEC Media Days

ATLANTA – Following two straight losing seasons to kickoff Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze’s tenure, it’s “prove it time” on the Plains.

Freeze and three athlete representatives – Jackson Arnold, Keldric Faulk and Connor Lew – took center stage at 2025 SEC Media Days on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming season, expectations, essential newcomers and the Tigers’ overall optimism surrounding the program as we inch closer to the 2025 campaign.

Let’s dive into the biggest takeaways from Auburn’s day at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta and what it means for the Tigers.

Tigers aren’t shying away from high expectations

After being hired in 2022, Freeze has consistently emphasized the need for a complete roster overhaul in order to compete for championships and return to the national spotlight.

Well, Auburn has done that, raking in two top-10 recruiting classes the past couple cycles and upgrading multiple positions including quarterback, wide receiver, and defensive line via the transfer portal throughout the offseason.

Year three at the helm is just around the corner – a season Freeze has pointed to countless times over the last two years – and Auburn’s expectations as a program haven’t regressed by any stretch of the imagination. However, Freeze and company welcome them and seem to understand Auburn football’s decorated history.

“Man, I embrace the expectations, all of them. You should have them there. And I think every season you should have expectations,” Freeze said to the media on Tuesday. “But the exciting thing now is I really like this locker room and I like the kids. I like coaching them, and I think we are primed. It’s time now to be in every game and then start finding a way to win them by doing the little things better that we didn’t last year.”

Faulk, a projected first-round NFL draft pick come April, says the Tigers are handling the high aspirations well, and describes the optimism in the locker room. 

“I don't feel like anybody on the team is overwhelmed with the pressure,” Faulk said. “I feel like we're embracing it because that's what we want. And our expectations for ourselves are even greater than the expectations that people have for us.”

Potentially the SEC’s top center in 2025 notes the difference he’s seen thus far compared to the last couple offseasons and reveals the key to meeting those expectations this fall.

“I just think there’s an increased level of intensity,” Lew said. “Everything’s just more urgent, focused, all that stuff. But there’s also a little bit of confidence, too. We know we’ve got the confidence, now it’s all about executing.”

Freeze and the Tigers understand the expectations in place at a tradition-rich school like Auburn, and in order to meet them, they must possess faith in their ability to do so – something Freeze exhibited multiple times during his morning in Atlanta.

Freeze holds the utmost confidence in this year’s team

“Heading into our third year with respect obviously to our great league, our roster is just better. We're bigger, we're faster, we're stronger. Our culture is strong,” Freeze said in his opening statement. “Our chemistry and carryover in coaching is here for a second consecutive year, and most of our locker room is bought into the standard to which we think it will take for us to win football games.”

To Freeze’s credit, the roster reconstruction and success on the recruiting trail has undoubtedly lived up to his word when he took the job. From the loaded wide receiver corps, to the heavily improved offensive line and his “guy” under center, the talent level is enough to be competitive with the nation’s best.

“We have built this fairly fast,” Freeze said. “We should have won or could have won some games last year, and we've done everything in our power to evaluate why that happened and what we can do better as coaches and then get more pieces to the puzzle with more and more players. We feel very confident we've done both. Our expectation is we embrace the high expectations that Auburn brings, and we believe this team's potential is limitless.”

But, for Freeze, sights are set higher than just competing with teams like Alabama and Georgia.

 “I truly believe that in the playoff run, we're going to be in this discussion because I love this team,” Freeze claimed when asked if Auburn can compete for a College Football Playoff berth.

Nonetheless, the extreme confidence Freeze holds surrounding the Tigers is promising, but its validity will likely hinge on the performance of one player in 2025.

Jackson Arnold seems to be perfect fit at Auburn

Oklahoma transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold entered the portal last winter after experiencing a less-than-ideal situation in Norman in 2024. The Sooners were plagued by a decimated, injury-afflicted wide receiver room and one of the worst offensive lines in the country, which likely impacted Arnold’s ability to produce effectively.

However, Freeze looks past the inconsistencies shown at Oklahoma and believes Arnold may be the perfect fit for his offense.

“I loved Jackson out of high school,” Freeze said. “I think everybody did. He was a Gatorade Player of the Year, top quarterback in the country coming out. Boy, he fits everything that I believe in doing offensively, and Coach Nix believes it. We've been together a long time, and he just fits that.”

“I don't know that it's fair for me to compare what he was asked to do at Oklahoma to what he's asked to do here,” Freeze added. “That's difficult, and particularly he had several different play callers. I mean, he has the same skill set that he had there, but I do think he has a really good understanding of what we're wanting to accomplish, and he has the skill sets to do that.”

Freeze made sure to exalt his credence in Arnold, but also demonstrated Auburn’s unwavering initiative to instill the same confidence into the former five-star ahead of his junior campaign.

“Then you look at his toughness, and in the Alabama game putting his team on his back with his legs, and I mean, he had some tough runs. So I knew he had the toughness to him,” Freeze said on his evaluation of Arnold. “And now it was just a matter of, man, let's give this guy a restart and let him regain his swagger and confidence, and I knew that the receiver room we had could assist in that… I've seen that swagger and confidence come back pretty quickly.”

This could be Freeze’s best offensive line ever at Auburn

As mentioned, a large reason for Arnold's struggles at Oklahoma could’ve been credited to the lack of protection provided by the offensive line – an issue that he shouldn’t have to face on the Plains in 2025.

“I think [the offensive line] is the best it’s been since we’ve been here, and Connor (Lew) is an anchor of it,” Freeze said.

The Tigers may have the most talented room the position has seen in a long time. Auburn brought in two tackles – Virginia Tech’s Xavier Chaplin and Mason Murphy from USC – through the transfer portal who both hold valuable Power Four experience. Chaplin and Murphy are both expected to start, and they join a veteran squad consisting of Lew and seniors Dillon Wade and Jeremiah Wright.

“Even the new guys that we brought in from the portal, they’ve brought a lot of experience with them and they're super talented from top to bottom,” Lew said.

Effective offensive line play and sufficient blocking up front could be a crucial factor in determining Arnold’s legacy in the orange and blue, and the Tigers certainly boast the talent and depth to succeed.

Tigers are focused on Baylor and understand importance of opener in Waco

Auburn’s week one clash at Baylor is the Tigers’ most important season opener in a couple decades.

Considering their four straight losing seasons, heightened expectations and exciting potential of this talented roster, there hasn’t been an opener since the 20th century with as many implications as Auburn’s matchup in Waco, TX, on Aug. 29.

“I think that game is vital,” Freeze said. “We’re going to be playing in a difficult environment against a really good football team, as well, coached by Dave Aranda. So when you put all of that on paper, the importance of it… this is not a game that you open up with and you sleepwalk at all and expect to win, and that sense of urgency should be seen all throughout our camp as we get ready for that one. So, I kind of get excited about that.”

In addition to Freeze, the players also recognize the significance of week one and seem to be aware of the effects it could present the Tigers as they progress through the heart of the season.

“That’s big because, like I said, we need the momentum going forward to the rest of the season,” Lew said. “The first half of the season is obviously going to be brutal, we’ve got some big away games that we have to play, so just getting that momentum early will be big for us.”

Following Auburn’s trip to Waco, Auburn returns home for a couple weeks before traveling to Oklahoma and Texas A&M in back-to-back weeks near the end of September, which could be a daunting task if it shows signs of concern against Baylor.

“Obviously Baylor is a very good team. It's going to be a great test for us. And I think things are starting to ramp up now,” Arnold said. “We're starting to get into game planning and starting to get into film study and stuff like that. It's definitely starting to ramp up.”

“You just try to go 1-0 each week. I'm excited about playing in Texas on a Friday night just like high school,” Arnold added.

Arnold also noted how the preparation doesn’t change based on the opponent, which Faulk echoed in a later interview.

“I’d say every game is a big game for us this year. We’re going to treat the opener like game six, game seven, game eight, end of the year, we’re going to treat it all the same,” Faulk said. “We’re ready to dominate every team that we play.”

Auburn believes it can finally win in 2025

Although Freeze and the Tigers expressed high hopes and full confidence at SEC Media Days on Tuesday, at the end of the day, it comes down to what transpires on the gridiron.

“It takes a little time to build it, and we've been doing that,” Freeze said. Certainly I wish we would have won more games a few times, but the future is very bright in my eyes. We've been blessed everywhere we've been to win, and I expect nothing less than that at Auburn.”

Auburn must find a way to win in 2025. Recruiting has been electrifying, Freeze brought in the quarterback he thinks fits his system, and the roster is talented enough to compete.

Can Freeze get it done year three and cement himself as a coach who’s here to stay?

Only time will tell…

But, he certainly has the pieces to do so.