Paul Finebaum Emerges from Spring Bullish on Auburn Tigers, Hugh Freeze

Over the two losing seasons Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze has posted thus far, the failure to pull out the close ones has cost him dearly.

In 2024, the Tigers lost three out of four games they played, which were decided by only single digits. Inevitably, it was former Auburn signal caller Payton Thorne who shouldered a large proportion of the blame for his error-prone performances.

During this offseason, Thorne's departure has led to a complete rebuild of the quarterback room. Freeze and Co. have placed a great deal of trust in quarterback Jackson Arnold, but he also had his own turnover and confidence issues last year while he was an Oklahoma Sooner.

Nevertheless, spring workouts have seen Freeze suitably impressed with how Arnold has bounced back and once again looked very much the part.

The buzz is growing, even with the likes of the traditionally difficult-to-please SEC analyst Paul Finebaum. Heaven knows, the ever-salty pundit firmly believes that with better quarterback play, there will also come better results.

"I came away from talking to Hugh Freeze pretty upbeat," Finebaum said on his own podcast. "He's got a lot of players that he didn't have. He was honest about that yesterday. I like their quarterback situation."

Good vibes are proving contagious both on campus and in the notoriously fickle national media circles. It's particularly difficult to get Finebaum onboard, but there we have it. Of course, Auburn fans and Freeze know not to count Finebaum among their long-term allies. But winning makes a lot of friends. 

What we are now experiencing is a classic case of when a coach needs his quarterback, and vice versa.

Getting a fresh start with Auburn also comes with the added bonus of Arnold getting to work with an extremely deep and talented wide receiver corps in 2025.

Freeze also would have appeared to have taken a more relaxed take on bringing his new quarterback along, his major health scare may well have reset his outlook on life and on coaching in general.

The rest of the roster around Arnold has considerably improved over the course of the last 12 months. However, the Auburn Tigers' reclamation project depends a lot on the emergence of Arnold as the promising five-star recruit he once was.  Freeze and Finebaum like what they see so far.