Freeze's Same Dreadful Message Continues to Haunt Auburn Family

There’s one main overarching question surrounding the fanbase right now: who’s at fault for this constant losing? Who’s to blame for Auburn’s offensive atrocity that transpired at Kyle Field on Saturday afternoon?

One could point to Jackson Arnold, and the offensive line certainly didn’t protect well, but the absolute embarrassment of an offense that fans witnessed this weekend is on Freeze.

Since being hired in 2022, he has asked the Auburn Family to have patience with the program, as it had to completely overhaul its roster and, essentially, rebuild from the ground up due to talent depletion.

Well, the Tigers now have a former five-star under center, one of the best wide receiver corps in the country on the outside, two solid running backs that are reliable in most scenarios, and a veteran offensive line that, supposedly, featured six players who were all “draftable” and “NFL-ready” before the season.

However, what fans saw from the Auburn offense against a middle-of-the-pack Aggie defense is simply inexcusable.

The play-calling was horrendous, careless penalties continued to shoot the Tigers in the foot every drive, and the game plan did not make sense.

Many talking points heading into Saturday emphasized Texas A&M’s inability to stop the run and how Auburn would have a solid chance to emerge victorious if it can take advantage of that and produce on the ground.

Instead, Freeze elected to run the ball eight times throughout the entire 60 minutes, and didn’t call a single handoff until the second quarter. Auburn’s leading rusher, Jeremiah Cobb, received a grand total of six carries for 28 yards, while Damari Alston ran the ball just twice.

As a team, Auburn recorded 52 yards on the ground. After seeing the success of the rushing attack earlier this season against teams like Baylor, Ball State, and South Alabama, Freeze chose not to utilize what had been successful all year against one of the worst rush defenses in the SEC.

And similar last year, Freeze continues to make way too familiar remarks in his postgame press conferences.

“Definitely, probably should have [run the football more]. Again, we’ve got to evaluate all of that… it was unacceptable the way – and again, that’s not on the kids,” Freeze said.

This is the second consecutive week Freeze said he wished he had utilized the running game more, which raises the question, “If he keeps saying that, then why hasn’t he done that?”

There are a plethora of other aspects of the game in which Auburn lacked on Saturday, but at the end of the day, it’s about whether Freeze is willing and able to make adjustments.

Auburn fans are sick and tired of listening to the same message of how Auburn is “so close” or “right there” in regards to winning these games that the Tigers just aren’t able to win. 

When it’s all said and done, the trajectory of Auburn’s season and Freeze’s job security relies on the Tigers’ ability to change what is not working on offense. Defensively, D.J. Durkin and company are the sole reason why Auburn is able to hang around in a majority of these games – they performed exceptionally well in College Station.

Auburn compiled a whopping total of one yard in the fourth quarter. Yes, one singular yard on four drives – three of which could’ve potentially been game-winning sequences.

The Tigers were also 0-for-13 on third down, and converted just nine first downs the entire game. That is downright indefensible, incompetent, and abhorrent.

They now have two weeks to prepare for No. 12 Georgia on Oct. 11, and then host No. 19 Missouri the weekend after. This next month will be the most crucial period of time that Freeze has faced in his three years at Auburn.

His time on the Plains is winding down, and in order for Freeze to retain his job as Auburn’s head football coach, he must make the proper adjustments to correct the absolute abomination of an offense that fans watched on Saturday.

There's no more time for excuses, reasons for failure, or “we’re so close” comments. It’s year three, and there is yet to be proof of concept on the field.

Fans are fed up, and the program deserves and expects better than what Freeze and the Tigers are delivering right now.

Only time will tell.