The Auburn Tigers are headed into the third season of the Hugh Freeze era coming off a regular season in year two that brought less success even than year one.
With an offensive handicapped by a crippling habit of turning the ball over and poor quarterback play, a 5-7 record made the Tigers not bowl eligible — and while there was never a question of Freeze’s job security due to having immense success in recruiting — there’s now more pressure than there has ever been on him on The Plains.
Freeze has brought a level of excitement back to the program which was sorely missed during the previous administration, but at a certain point positive momentum cannot supersede on-field results, and he knows he has to get it done this season.
Speaking to the media at the conclusion of Auburn’s final spring practice, Freeze expressed optimism of the direction the program is taking.
“We have the two recruiting classes we’ve had and the roster therefore looks different,” Freeze said after the team’s A-Day when asked about the makeup of talent on the roster after two full recruiting cycles.
While Freeze is hopeful about where the roster is at, he knows it’s still a building process as well.
“I thought it would take three [classes] to really have the roster to where it rivals those of the elite in this conference. And that’s probably still accurate,” he said. “But, I do feel optimistic that with the two we’ve had, we can compete, should compete this year. And so it does look different. So let’s go line up and see what we got.”
Auburn has an ongoing quarterback battle that will rage into the summer between former Oklahoma highly rated recruit Jackson Arnold — who they acquired in the portal — and elite freshman Deuce Knight.
Arnold and Knight took the majority of the reps in the spring and while Arnold is expected to start, Knight has impressed as well.
Whether it’s Arnold or Knight however, both quarterbacks should have a better roster around them than Auburn has had in the first two seasons of Freeze at the helm.
But with a better roster comes more pressure, and no one knows that more than Freeze himself.
