The 2024 Iron Bowl was telling about what can be expected from Alabama Football and Auburn in the 2025 season. Alabama was inconsistent again, but 'Good' Jalen Milroe and Alabama were much better than Auburn. Even when Alabama was not good by gifting Auburn four turnovers, Auburn was unable to make up much ground.
After the game, Hugh Freeze reminded everyone that Auburn's faults lie in its roster. There is some truth in that statement, but it obscures Auburn's main deficiency. Auburn is not a well-coached team, beginning with Freeze. The offensive magic Freeze wielded for a bit is long gone. He outcoached a Nick Saban defense once in 2014, aided by an Alabama late-game kickoff return fumble. Freeze and Ole Miss won again in 2015, with the deciding score coming from a fluke-deflected touchdown reception. Freeze was lucky twice. Many in the college football world decided he was an offensive wizard.
In 2016 Freeze finished his Ole Miss tenure with a 5-7 season. In Hugh's four seasons at Liberty, the Flames beat no teams of note in the 2019 and 2021 seasons. Liberty beat 1-10 Syracuse and 5-6 Virginia Tech in 2020. The Flames beat 7-6 Arkansas and 8-5 BYU in the 2022 season. The most generous assessment of Freeze's four Liberty seasons is that he had modest success. What Auburn saw instead, was a Saban-killer. Freeze was a natural and foolish choice for a program that measures its worth by comparison to its main rival.
The Tigers are stuck with him for another season. Freeze's Auburn record is 11-14. In almost two seasons, Bryan Harsin was 10-12. Auburn fired Gus Malzahn after he went 15-8 in his last two seasons. Gene Chizik was fired after going 11-14 in his last two Auburn seasons. Auburn made the correct decision to move on from Malzahn. It was the only sound coaching move the Tigers have made in over 15 years.
After Auburn's fifth straight Iron Bowl loss (which had not happened since 1973-1977) Freeze said, "I'm big on not getting our identity from a scoreboard and I want our players to know that." In the same media session, Freeze again blamed an Auburn player. Payton Thorne had been his whipping boy all season, but it was outstanding running back Jarquez Hunter on Saturday night. Hunter threw the pathetic pass that Bray Hubbard intercepted without having to move. Freeze said Hunter made the wrong read and should have passed the ball back to Thorne, ignoring that nothing productive would have come from that and might have also led to an interception. It was a bad play, called at a bad time, by a bad coach.
Even Fly War Eagle called out Freeze for again trying to deflect blame upon one of his players.
Alabama Football and Auburn heading in different directions
The 2024 Alabama Football team is a good one, but not a great one. Reaching 9-3 in a post-Saban, transition season is more than respectable. Alabama football fans have good reason to believe Kalen DeBoer's future Alabama teams will be better. Auburn fans have hope that Hugh Freeze's recruiting will also make Auburn better. But even great recruiting does not fully compensate for bad coaching. Check out the numerous coaching grades given Auburn after the Iron Bowl loss. From reporters across Alabama, the most common grade is an 'F'.
And one more thing; those five straight Auburn losses from 1973-1977 turned into nine straight by 1981. Can Auburn be heading there again?
Note: Team and coaching records provided by Sports Reference