Mailbag 211: What would show progress for Auburn football in 2025?

This week: Basketball rule changes, Auburn football road trips, opponents to know, throwback uniforms and your favorite condiments

(Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — I love continuity.

There’s a reason why I’ve done more than 200 of these mailbags and nearly 500 podcast episodes. My postgame stories are all “Observations.” I go back to the “What Auburn basketball is getting in [insert player name here]” well a lot. You rarely see titles from this outlet that don’t have a colon in them. Dan has created a very popular and wildly named podcast segment this offseason.

When you go out on your own and start a niche newsletter + podcast combination focusing on analysis of two specific sports teams from a specific university, it’s important to let people know what you’re going to get. We don’t give you everything at The Observer, nor do we try to do that. But we want you to know what to expect.

That’s why we have recurring bits, formats and podcast guests. Do that enough over the span of several years, and your audience can see what’s coming. And, if they like it, they’ll stick around.

I’m saying all of this to set up this week’s lead mailbag question, because it’s all about continuity.

For the last several years, we’ve gotten a summer email from a longtime Observer subscriber named David. In that email, David lays out what he thinks are reasonable expectations for the upcoming Auburn football season. It’s been the lead question of a June mailbag several times now.

Well, it’s David SZN yet again. This week’s mailbag starts with a look back at the 2024 edition and a look ahead to what could be considered “progress” for 2025.

We’ve also got some fun reader questions this week about road trips for Auburn games, players and opponents to watch in the near future, basketball rule changes and a lot more. I also asked everyone for their single favorite sauce or condiment, and we’ve got some stellar picks in here.

But I want to thank David — and the rest of y’all — for continuing to make this a place that not only survives the long offseason but, in a way, thrives in it. I don’t take it for granted.

With that being said, let’s go.

I’ve asked this question during the last couple of preseasons, so here goes again: what would you consider reasonable benchmarks of progress in football this year — not necessarily goals, but signs that the program is headed in the right direction under this regime?

Before we dive into David’s benchmarks for the 2025 season, let’s take a look back at what we discussed before the 2024 season and how Auburn handled those:

• A winning season: Nope. This is the big one, and Auburn fell short. It had several chances to prevent this, but it lost multiple games from winnable positions. In spite of the positive developments elsewhere with the program, the on-field failures can overshadow a lot of those.

• A top-10 recruiting class nationally and top-4 in the SEC: Depending on where you look, Auburn either hit this or came extremely close. The 247Sports Composite, which I use, put the Tigers’ class at No. 8 nationally and No. 5 in the SEC. The only reason Florida was at No. 4 in the league was because it signed a couple of extra 3-stars. I say the Tigers got this one.

• Much more consistency in the passing game: Well, this one is interesting. Auburn ranked No. 10 nationally in passing yards per attempt and No. 17 in quarterback rating last season. It was one of the best seasons through the air in program history, believe it or not. But the point of the game is sticking the ball in the end zone, and the Tigers’ points per game against quality opponents fell to No. 81 nationally. The yards were there. The explosiveness was there. The end result wasn’t, and that was a huge reason why Auburn had a losing record.

• Stability in the coaching staff, especially the coordinators: Check that box for Auburn. You’re always going to have movement with your position coaches at the very least — the Charles Kelly departure stung — but the Tigers are bringing back the same coordinators in consecutive seasons for the first time in a while. There’s continuity here, and Auburn needs to make that count in 2025.

So it was a mixed bag for Auburn in 2024, and that feels right. The Tigers continued to stack talent through recruiting and retained key personnel. However, they didn’t do the most important thing on that list, and the passing game progress was a bit hollow in the long run. That’s why it feels like opinions are divided on Auburn pre-2025.

Now, let’s break down the benchmarks for 2025: