Mailbag 221: What does Auburn need to show early in SEC play?
This week: Concerns through three games, pass protection, Cam Coleman, the QB of the future, basketball uniforms and Chaos Auburn
AUBURN — Welcome to the first big weekend of Auburn football season.
When Auburn beat Baylor on a Friday night a few weeks ago, it was a good sign for the program. The Tigers went out and beat a quality opponent away from Jordan-Hare Stadium, and they did it with great efficiency and patience on offense. Even with the defensive issues, there were signs of potential growth on the field.
Three weeks later, we’re going to start to find out how much of that was for real — or how much of it was a product of a less-talented Week 1 opponent.
By the time you’re reading this Friday morning, I’ll be on my way to Oklahoma. Auburn’s trip to Norman for the first time in SEC play is a potential needle-mover for a program that needs more of those under Hugh Freeze. It’s the return of Jackson Arnold, but it could also be the return of Auburn football to more national prominence.
The first quarter of the 2025 season featured a 3-0 start for Auburn and a lot of learning. The second quarter is going to be much more critical, just like it is in an actual football game. If the Tigers are putting their recent struggles behind them and moving forward this fall, what they do in these next couple of trips will matter a lot.
That’s the subject of the first question for this week’s mailbag. We’ll also update our list of preseason concerns for Auburn football, along with a discussion of passing game strategy against Oklahoma, looking at a couple of big names and digging into a little bit of recruiting before a lightning round of non-football questions at the end.
Thanks as always for reading, listening and subscribing to The Observer. The fact that I get to go on these trips and cover these teams for y’all only happens because of your support. I’m not getting reimbursed for any of this, but I’ve never had to worry a single second about finances in the now-six seasons of doing this. That will never be taken for granted on our end.
Let’s go.
What do we need to see from Auburn during the next three games to feel confident about the remaining games on the schedule and that the team has taken a step forward from previous years? Do they need to come away with at least one win to feel like real progress has been made?
Owen
Short answer: Yes. If Auburn goes 0-3 for its next three games, it would be safe to say that the program hasn’t taken that step forward and improvement isn’t there yet. Improved stats or closer scores are fine. It’s beyond time to start seeing real results.
Let’s consider an Auburn team that is 3-3 at the halfway point of the season. That team would have beaten Baylor on the road and won two paycheck games. Outside of the Iron Bowl at the end of the season, the wins available the rest of the way would be Missouri, Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Well, Auburn has beaten teams of that caliber — including those exact ones — multiple times in this streak of losing seasons.
The only way to overcome that would be to sweep all four of those SEC games, plus Mercer, and enter the Iron Bowl at 8-3. While that’s possible and would be clear progress in the win-loss record, that itself would be a challenge for a team that had lost three straight games before that. Missouri and Vanderbilt look better than expected early. Arkansas has an explosive offense. Kentucky might not be dead yet.
The more straightforward way to show progress — and one that would cause a lot less frustration for everyone involved — would be to pick off at least one of these next three games.
Just think about what that would represent: Auburn hasn’t beaten a top-15 team in a true road game since 2014. It hasn’t beaten a ranked team away from home, period, since 2021. By beating either Oklahoma or Texas A&M, Auburn would get its best result away from Jordan-Hare Stadium in quite some time.
Let’s say you go 0-2 over these next two weeks. A home win over Georgia would overshadow those losses almost immediately. This is a game Auburn hasn’t won since 2017 and has won only three times in the last two decades. What was once a tight rivalry is now extremely one-sided. Beat Georgia to be 4-2 heading into the second half of the season, and you still have the potential to make a lot of noise this season.
Yes, winning any of these next three games is going to be a challenge. Auburn will be an underdog in all of them. In the eyes of SP+, Oklahoma this weekend is the toughest of the three matchups. (The Sooners have a slight edge over the Bulldogs right now.)
But, in the words of Freeze himself, this is why you come to Auburn. This is why you coach here. This is why you play here. At its best, Auburn has never been the ultra-dominant, clear-cut contender year in and year out. No, this program is built on beating the teams that might have more talent and might be more highly regarded, either in recent years or over the course of college football history.
To have three straight opportunities at a defining, big-game victory would continue to show that Auburn has fallen off from where it should be. Progress for the Tigers in the 2025 season was never winning a championship or bust. But it’s about getting back to where the program belongs, and winning games like these next three are clear examples of doing just that.
It’s still early in the season. We don’t know just how good Oklahoma, Texas A&M or Georgia are quite yet. There’s a lot of football left to play. Still, these are the types of games that define Auburn football’s best seasons — the ones that they haven’t gotten to experience in a while. Auburn has the talent level to look across at all three of these opponents and know it has enough to win if it plays well.
If Auburn football is truly turning a corner, I think we’re going to find out over these next three weeks. Win one, and you’re on track. Win multiple, and you could be in for something special. Win none, and you’re in danger of treading water, at best, again.
I asked this question during the preseason, and I am interested in how the answers have changed. What are the three things Auburn fans should be worried about heading into Oklahoma and why ?
For me:
1) pass defense (coverage)
2) special teams
3) pass protection
John