Mailbag 218: Why should you believe in Auburn this season?
This week: Areas of concern, freshmen to watch, Demarcus Riddick, facing Sawyer Robertson, rushing vs. receiving and biscuits
ARLINGTON, Texas — Get up. It’s game day.
Yes, a lot of you have to work today. But at least you’re even closer to the start of what is shaping up to be a critical season of Auburn football.
It’s fitting that there’s no extra waiting for this 2025 campaign, where the Tigers are desperate to end their streak of losing seasons and finally move closer to where they expect to be year in and year out.
And, instead of beating up on a paycheck opponent in Week 1, Auburn is getting a true litmus test in this Friday night opener by playing on the road against a Baylor team that had a much nicer finish to 2024 than it did.
We’ve spent weeks, even months, looking ahead to this game. We’re finally here. I’ll head to Waco later today for a primetime showdown under the famous Friday Night Lights of Texas.
For those of you who haven’t joined us at The Observer yet, this is the last day to get a subscription for $4/month or $40/year for your first full year. That’s a 33% discount. It’s the best sale we’ll run.
You’ll get access to all of our preseason content, including a big Baylor game preview podcast, and our postgame Observations from later tonight will get sent directly to your email inbox. Best of all, you’ll get all of football season, all of basketball season and pretty much all of next offseason included in that discounted price.
Come join us. A triple-digit amount of your fellow Auburn fans have done the same over the past few weeks.
We’ll get you started with this week’s mailbag, which opens with a simple question: Why should you get invested in Auburn football this season?
Let’s go.
what are three reasons to give me any sort of hope to make me want to watch auburn football this year
Kristen
For those of you who are entering this Auburn football season with some varying degrees of skepticism or pessimism, those feelings are valid. Auburn is currently in its worst stretch of football in the modern era of the program. Four straight losing seasons represent an extended low for a team that played for an SEC title three times — and won it twice — in the span of eight years not too long ago.
Auburn should be a better football team in 2025. It should have been a better team in 2024, too. Instead, the Tigers added more talent and lost more games. They had a top-10 passing attack nationally in terms of yards per attempt but were one of the worst offenses in turning red-zone trips into touchdowns that the SEC has seen in the last decade. The defense had great production but was prone to fatal flaws in key situations. And the special teams, surprisingly, were well below the usual standard.
It’s easy to look at all of that and say, “Well, why should I believe that this season is going to be any different?” Again, that’s fair. Hugh Freeze and his coaching staff have a lot of pressure on them to get it right this fall. If Auburn can’t win games in the third year of a tenure in the high-stakes SEC, the question is simple: What more do they need — and why does it seem like other programs don’t need as much to succeed?
But I have a feeling that more of you reading and listening to The Observer are on the more optimistic side of the equation. This is evident in the amount of excitement I’ve noticed in the past month. Our newsletters and podcasts are getting more preseason traffic than ever. New subscription numbers have exploded. I don’t want to take all the credit for that. Even though I believe we provide a good and unique product, there wouldn’t be this much interest if there wasn’t belief in the upcoming season.
With that being said, Kristen asked me for three reasons why you should want to watch Auburn football this season. Even without putting a number on predicted wins or banking on specific results, I think I can give those reasons here in the final few hours before the offseason officially comes to a close.
1: This could be the most talented collection of players Auburn has had in quite some time. Maybe it’s truly all about the Jimmies and Joes. Auburn has some extremely gifted and fun-to-watch players on this roster, including…
Cam Coleman: The highest-rated offensive recruit in program history and a receiver who is already considered among the elites in the sport
Keldric Faulk: A potential first-round NFL Draft talent and a game-wrecker at the line of scrimmage
Eric Singleton Jr.: One of the most productive returning receivers in the country
The entire secondary: Has a ceiling that rivals the 2017 crew of future NFLers
Xavier Chaplin: From a draft perspective, some think he might be Auburn’s most talented offensive lineman since Braden Smith
Amaris Williams and Demarcus Riddick: Freakish athletic talents on defense who could really pop in Year 2 on the Plains
Malik Blocton: The closest thing to Marlon Davidson since the big man left
Jackson Arnold: Hey, at one point, he was a 5-star and a National Player of the Year — you don’t get those accolades without a high-level ceiling
This is a deeper, faster, stronger and more talented team than we’ve seen throughout Auburn’s recent slide as a program. Games aren’t won on paper, but they have the talent to turn things around. Also, I think there’s a lot of easy-to-root-for players on this roster. That always helps.
2: Georgia and Alabama are coming to Jordan-Hare Stadium this season. Traditionally, when Auburn has a good football team on its hands, that usually means a win or two against the biggest rivals. Auburn has had both Georgia and Alabama at home in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023. Auburn swept those games in memorable fashion in 2013 and 2017. It beat Alabama and came close to beating Georgia in 2019. It played at least one very close game, despite the team’s obvious issues, in 2015 and 2021. And, during this staff’s tenure, the Tigers took Georgia to the fourth quarter and was an inexplicable meltdown away from beating Alabama in 2023. Bottom line: If Auburn is remotely good, it’s got a shot at a big victory.
3: It’s Auburn football, which means you never truly know what you’re getting. Auburn is historically the toughest program to predict in college football, both positively and negatively. Things don’t always make sense year to year or week to week. Auburn got worked by New Mexico State two years ago and should’ve beaten Alabama the very next Saturday. Auburn scored seven points at home against Vanderbilt last year and then kept Texas A&M from the College Football Playoff in a shootout. The insanity is baked into the product here. You might be frustrated about the state of the program. (Completely valid!) You might be frustrated about a result later this season. (Also valid!) Neither guarantees anything for the future. Additionally, this feels like a make-or-break season for the program as a whole. Either Auburn rises to the occasion and gets better, or it might be starting a new era. Remember, this team is rarely boring. This season is bound to be eventful, one way or the other.
Not everything will be perfect on Friday. Where will Auburn struggle?
Vulcan Tiger
I’m not saying Auburn will struggle in any of these areas, but these are the spots that I would have concern heading into this opener against Baylor: