Observations: Vanderbilt 45, Auburn 38 (OT)
After firing Hugh Freeze, Auburn had its best offensive game against an SEC foe in six years — and its worst defensive game in two years.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It took no time for Auburn to show that its first game without Hugh Freeze was going to be different than its last several under him.
But, in hindsight, the Tigers wouldn’t have wanted it to be completely different.
On the road Saturday against a Vanderbilt team with hopes of making the College Football Playoff, Auburn’s offense put up 563 yards — the most the Tigers had generated in a single SEC game in more than six whole years.
Auburn looked unshackled from the offensive struggles that had come to define the end of the Freeze tenure. After scoring just one touchdown in two entire games against the two worst defenses in the SEC, the Tigers found the end zone on each of their first two drives against a team with legitimate College Football Playoff hopes.
Ironically, those 14 points would have been enough to beat Kentucky a week earlier. If Auburn could find a way to get a couple more scores, it would have had enough points to flip pretty much all of its previous losses in a massively frustrating season.
There was just one problem: Auburn wasn’t getting that kind of usual defensive performance Saturday. Instead, the Tigers were on their way to allowing 38 points in regulation — almost twice as many as their season-long average in SEC play — and 544 total yards, the most they had given up in a conference game in two years.
Even with defensive coordinator DJ Durkin at the helm as the interim head coach, the Tigers walked off the field Saturday in Nashville having given it their all in yet another close loss: A 45-38 shootout that went to overtime.
This time, the roles were reversed from their usual spots under Freeze.
“I just want to say I’m really proud of Coach (Derrick) Nix and our offense and how they prepared these guys and what they did,” Durkin said. “We laid out a plan earlier in the week of what we needed to get done, and credit goes to our players, our coaching staff for getting that done. I thought they did a really good job.
“Defensively, we were stopping them early, and they switched. That was different than what they’ve done all season long, if you exclude what they did at the end of the Texas game… We didn’t respond well. We made too many mistakes and could not get stops enough times on defense. That was really the difference in the game.”
There were a couple of repeat themes from the rest of 2025, for sure. Auburn committed a dozen penalties for 91 yards, the second-most in both categories for a season in which the Tigers entered Saturday ranked No. 112 and No. 99 in the FBS, respectively. Vanderbilt, a team that usually gets penalized as much as Auburn, somehow got out of the game with just three flags for 21 yards.
The Tigers had some pass protection breakdowns at the worst times. They failed to take full advantage of trips into the red zone on a couple of occasions. They struggled to get off the field on third downs and had no answer for passes to an elite tight end.
But Auburn also kept fighting. It blew a two-touchdown advantage and found a way to retake the lead. It drove 75 yards to tie the game late in the fourth quarter and got a stop when it looked like Vanderbilt was going to win in regulation. While other teams in lost seasons under interim coaches have packed it in, Auburn hasn’t.
“This is our team, and we have to own that,” quarterback Ashton Daniels said. “Regardless of who’s our coach, regardless of any of the outside noise, we have to own that this is our team, and we did that. And we fought so hard.”
Here are four big Observations from Auburn’s 45-38 overtime loss to Vanderbilt.
