Hugh Freeze Sets Clear Expectations for Auburn's 2025 Season
The Auburn Tigers' football program has been in a difficult spot for several years. Auburn has sought stability since Gus Malzahn's 2020 departure, and the school hopes Hugh Freeze's third season as the head coach will bring a return to contention in the demanding Southeastern Conference.
Freeze on Friday made the expectations clear for his Tigers entering 2025. He told "The Next Round" that Auburn cannot repeat its 5-7 campaign from a year ago, and the time is now to arrest the program's decline across recent seasons.
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"I'm not a fool, I think we've got to go to a bowl game," Freeze said.
It has been six years since Auburn ended a season ranked in the top 25 of the Associated Press poll, and the Tigers have not won 10 games in a season since 2017. Auburn was criticized for a failure to secure impact recruits during the Malzahn and Bryan Harsin eras, which has put Freeze in a challenging spot as he steadily rebuilds the program.
"Our administration understands I inherited a program that didn't have a top-25 recruiting class for four years," Freeze said. "We've had now two full recruiting classes, both top 10, one more and then your roster looks complete."
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Indeed, Auburn's 2024 and 2025 classes have been ranked eighth and sixth respectively by 247Sports. The 2025 class is led by four-star quarterback Deuce Knight and five-star defensive line prospect Malik Autry -- who went to high school just up the road from Auburn in Opelika, Alabama.
The recruitment service also likes what Freeze and his staff accomplished in the transfer portal going into 2025. Knight forms one part of an overhauled QB room; he will be competing for reps with Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold, a former five-star recruit who is the early favorite to start Auburn's season opener against Baylor on August 29.
"I see no reason why we shouldn't (improve), and I think that's an expectation that our people should have," Freeze said.
Related: Fans in Disbelief Over Charley Barkley NIL Confession to Auburn
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