What did Auburn's offense learn in the off week before UGA?
The Tigers have fallen flat in SEC play, but they have an opportunity to turn it around and win big. Here are the changes they might make.
AUBURN — It feels like Auburn football is approaching another crossroads.
After opening 2025 with a 3-0 start that included a road win at Baylor, Auburn was on the verge of breaking through. The Tigers were ranked for the first time in a long time. They wouldn’t be favored in trips to Oklahoma and Texas A&M, but snagging just one of those games would have gone a long way toward having the season they need.
Auburn didn’t get blown out in either game. It actually had chances to take both, getting opportunities for game-winning drives once at Oklahoma and multiple times at Texas A&M.
Instead, the Tigers crumbled in those situations. The offense, under the direction of third-year head coach Hugh Freeze, went backwards. Auburn had back-to-back games with less than 300 yards — including just 187 at Texas A&M — for the third time in the last eight years and the second time under Freeze.
“When you don’t perform in a manner that gives your kids a chance to win a game like last couple weeks ago against a really good football team, it’s sickening and it’s disappointing,” Freeze said Monday. “I assure you that we’ve worked tirelessly in the open week to correct and give our kids the best chance to win.
“Accountability will rest upon me and our staff. Obviously there’s things the kids have to be accountable for, too, but by and large it’s disappointing that we didn’t give our kids a better chance to win.”
Yes, Auburn was close to pulling off an upset or two that could have changed things. But the numbers that matter most show that the Tigers still haven’t gotten the breakthrough they’ve been fighting for under Freeze.
“Nobody wants to hear — nor do I — that we’re closer,” Freeze said.
He’s right. When a top-15 or so college football program all-time hasn’t had a winning season in nearly five years, it’s beyond time for results. When a coach is 30 games into his tenure and has won less than 30% of his conference matchups, it’s a problem.
But the joint blessing and curse of playing and coaching at Auburn is that there’s always an opportunity for a seismic win just around the corner.
After an off week, Auburn will get that shot Saturday night against rival Georgia. The Tigers haven’t beaten the Bulldogs since 2017 and have only gotten three wins in the series in the last 20 meetings.
“We definitely self-scouted everything, to see where we’re heavy tendency-wise on things,” Freeze said. “We had plenty of time, so it was both. We got a jump start on Georgia, also. We did both. … You play in the SEC, there are a lot of teams that are in situations similar to ours.
“Now, it’s about the next game up, and that’s Georgia for us. And what an exciting opportunity, and that’s what our focus is.”
While Georgia is still a top-10 team with its sights set on yet another berth in the College Football Playoff, this is one of the most gettable matchups Auburn has had with Kirby Smart and his team in a while. Auburn is currently a 3.5-point home underdog, which is the closest line for a game between the two since 2019.
Georgia didn’t look great in its two paycheck games to open the season, needed a rally and a missed field goal to beat Tennessee in overtime and lost a rare home game to Alabama just two weeks ago. SP+ likes Georgia by less than five points. CFB-Graphs actually has Auburn winning in its own projection.
In order to pull off that upset, Auburn is obviously going to have to play better than it has in its first two SEC games — especially on offense. The Tigers will have had more time to prepare for this game, and they’re only missing a couple of long-term injury absences right now in receiver Horatio Fields and running back Durell Robinson.
It might not entirely be “now or never” for Freeze and his staff. But the pressure to actually get that signature win is as high as it’s ever been after two recent failures.
“I know that this team is closer than we’ve ever been in the two-and-a-half years that I’ve been here or so,” Freeze said. “I’m just ready to get us over the hump.”
So what did Auburn’s offense learn about itself as it got additional time to prepare for Georgia? Here are the big lessons from the start of UGA week — including a bonus takeaway on that Baylor game announcement from the afternoon.