Is the Auburn football program like a car that doesn’t always start when you need to go somewhere?
If that feels like a bizarre question to ask, well, it’s not coming out of thin air. In an interview with Al.com about the state of the football program, Auburn athletic director John Cohen was asked about coach Hugh Freeze’s future with the program. This is what Cohen had to say when he said that he expects Auburn to be victorious ahead of every game it plays.
When asked whether or not he expects Freeze to be Auburn’s head coach in 2026, Cohen said he has a “never say never” attitude, and used a metaphor about a car not starting to explain his thought process.
“I don’t know if I’m going to walk outside and my car is going to start or not, I think it is,” Cohen said. “I have an expectation it will. But if my car doesn’t start enough, then I will evaluate that and make decisions about my car. But that’s not my expectation at this point about our football program.”
Auburn fell to 0-3 in the SEC and 3-3 overall in Week 7 with a 20-10 loss to Georgia. Though most Auburn fans would like to point to officiating that didn’t go the Tigers’ way in the loss, Auburn’s second-half offense didn’t exactly give the Tigers a chance to win. Auburn had 25 yards of offense over five drives in the second half until gaining 25 yards on its last possession of the game with two minutes to go and trailing by two scores.
Advertisement
Those offensive struggles are the story of the Auburn season. The Tigers are giving up just 4.8 yards a play and 17 points a game. But they also rank 92nd in scoring offense at 24.7 points per game and are averaging just 5.1 yards a play themselves.
Former Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold has thrown for just 983 yards across six games and has rushed for 110 yards over Auburn’s last five games after he had 16 carries for 137 yards in the Week 1 win over Baylor.
Freeze — an offensive-minded head coach — was hired to replace Bryan Harsin after the 2022 season and help get Auburn back to being a competitor at the top of the SEC. Instead, the Tigers are 14-17 overall in his 2.5 seasons and have three more ranked teams remaining on their 2025 schedule. Auburn hosts No. 16 Missouri on Saturday night and also has No. 17 Vanderbilt and No. 6 Alabama left to play.
