Hugh Freeze’s Tigers are yet to raise their game in the SEC. His current record stands at 11-14. Two seasons. One without bowl eligibility. So, it wasn’t surprising that the head coach didn’t set his hopes high for the upcoming season. Back in May, the Auburn Tigers head coach, Hugh Freeze, opened up about the expectations for his college football program. “I’m not a fool. I think we have to go to a bowl game.” One month later, Freeze was back again with his big statements about the Tigers. However, this time around, he refused to tread into the bowl game lane. 

Freeze actually boiled it down to one word: “Win.” And tucked the bowl game expectations under the table. “I don’t get into that. You never know, injuries and the way the ball bounces and all of that.” No matter how their 2025 season is going to turn around, Freeze’s squad has been blessed with a loyal fandom. But yet then, amidst such a groundbreaking feat, some questions still hint at not 100% trust for Freeze. 

For the third consecutive football season, the Auburn Tigers have sold out of public season tickets, officials announced on June 24. The sellout matches last year’s record of 63,500 tickets purchased. But here comes a catch. More than 4,000 of those tickets are from new season ticket holders. That’s when the question comes up: What made the old ticket holders turn away from Freeze’s squad? This was taken up on the June 25th episode of The Next Round podcast. Host Jim Dunaway shared, “Again, 4,000 new season ticket holders to give them three straight years of sellouts. But I would love to talk to the people who gave up their 4,000 season tickets. Hard times out there. 

Dunaway added, “I mean, these things get more expensive, so it may be just financial reasons. Maybe that’s the normal cycle of 4,000 go 4,000 come on. I don’t know, I just saw 4,000 new ones, and I go half full—there are 4. We got a waiting list to get season tickets. The other half is, why do we have 4,000 disgruntled customers?” Maybe they can no longer trust Freeze. He has a combined 11-14 record during his first two seasons with the Tigers. The 2024 season was a well-documented version of turnover and consistency issues. Plus, Freeze failed to flip Auburn’s luck. 

The Tigers have not won an SEC Championship since 2013 and have yet to make an appearance in a College Football Playoff. However, that should not have been the case. As analyst Trey Wallace shared, “They’ve given Hugh Freeze what he needed to purchase the best players, now it’s time to go out there and compete for a College Football Playoff spot.” So, ‘urgent change’ is something that’s the need of the hour for Freeze and Auburn. 

Doing the bare minimum won’t be enough for Hugh Freeze’s boat to float 

Do you remember when Connor O’Gara explored the question, “Who’s got more pressure? Brian Kelly or Hugh Freeze?” The answer came, “Hugh Freeze, for his job. Hugh Freeze is the hottest seat of anybody in college football, and maybe I’ll get push back from that… more than Napier.” Now isn’t this enough of a wake-up call for Freeze? If he is still of two minds about Auburn’s potential, they can now count on their new quarterback, Jackson Arnold. However, with a quarterback who was sacked 34 times a season ago, the protected O-line adds more pressure for the Auburn head coach. 

So, doing the bare minimum won’t serve Freeze any good. As analyst Lance Taylor shared, “I still think Hugh Freeze is a good coach, but if you’re sitting there at the end of the year with 6-6, 7-5, I don’t really know what they do at this point.” Time for a reminder. Freeze’s squad hasn’t won more than six games since 2019 and is on a losing streak for the fourth straight year. This was doubled down by Ryan Brown. “Yeah, but even at 6-6, 7-5, if you’ve got a top-five recruiting class, I don’t know if that’s enough to sell to the fan base in terms of Hugh Freeze.” What makes Freeze’s seat hotter in 2025 is that, despite having the top 5 recruiting class, the Tigers are still going to hit a nosedive.

Most sportsbooks have Freeze’s Auburn with a 7.5 win total for 2025, with ESPN’s Football Power Index giving the Tigers just a 1.8% chance of winning the SEC. If Freeze needs some more clarity on what his present ‘To-Do’ list will be, Rivals’ Brian Stultz deemed eight wins and a bowl game a successful season as the only goal. The last time the Tigers’ fandom witnessed a postseason win was under Kenny Dillingham’s offense. Let’s see if Freeze can make the quitters wish they stayed—and turn the new wave of fans into bowl-game believers.