Auburn Tigers Clawing Way Out of Historically Bad Run

The Auburn Tigers are emerging from one of their worst runs in the history of their program.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze is in the midst of upgrading a roster that was thread-bare when he arrived. / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers defense played lights out and the run game was a force for the first time all season as the Tigers improved to 3-5 on the year and tallied their first SEC win, now at 1-4.

Hugh Freeze and the staff have done a remarkable job at restructuring and rebuilding the roster after the Bryan Harsin Era on The Plains, which was an all encompassing disaster. While Freeze’s off the field rebuilding of the program earns high praises, the on-the-field results have been poor.

As the 2024 Tigers get closer to the end and possibly another losing year, the program is inching up on some historically bad marks that haven’t been accomplished in generations.

When was the last time Auburn had four straight losing seasons?

From Pat Dye’s second season in 1982 to Gus Malzahn’s final year in 2020, spanning 39 years, Auburn had just five seasons with more losses than wins. Malzahn was fired during a 6-5 year in 2020, the COVID season, and that was as close as he came to a losing season.

Every other Auburn coach during that span was attributed with one, while Tommy Tuberville had a losing season in his first and last: Dye 5-6 in 1991; Terry Bowden 3-8 in 1998; Tuberville 5-6 in 1999 and 5-7 in 2007; Gene Chizik 3-8 in 2012.

Along came Bryan Harsin, whose teams went 6-7 and 5-7, and who destroyed the roster moving forward. Then Freeze went 6-7 last year, extending the Auburn program’s streak to three.

Currently Auburn sits at three straight losing seasons for the first time since 1975 to 1977. Ralph ‘Shug’ Jordan went 3-6-2 in his final season in 1975. Doug Barfield went 3-8 in 1976 and 5-6 in 1977.

The last time the program had four straight was a five-season streak 1946 through 1950: 4-6 in 1946 and 2-7 in 1947 under Carl Voyles; 1-8-1 in 1948, 2-4-3 in 1949 and 0-10 in 1950 under Earl Brown.

After beating Kentucky, Auburn needs four wins in the next five games to stay out of territory the program avoided since 1950.

When was the last time Auburn went six seasons without a bowl win?

The last bowl win was the 63-14 thrashing of Purdue in the Music City Bowl at the end of the 2018 season, which means Auburn’s current streak is at five years without a bowl victory. The win at Kentucky was a step in the right direction, but again, Auburn needs to win three of the last four to even make a bowl.

If not, the sixth season without a bowl victory banner would be the longest streak since Dye’s first season following the Barfield Era. Jordan won the Gator Bowl in his second to last year in 1974, but went 3-6-2 in 1975. None of Barfield’s teams ever even made it to a bowl game. Dye’s first team in 1981 went 5-6, but his second team snapped the streak with a 33-26 victory over Doug Flutie and Boston College in the Tangerine Bowl.

When was the last time Auburn started a season 2-5?

The answer to just about any question in the modern era about a bad Auburn team belongs to the 2012 squad that went 3-9. So prior to 2024, the last team that started 2-5 or worse was 2012. Oddly enough that team had a group of players who won a national championship in 2010, but 2012 was the worst Auburn team of the modern era, then went back to the national championship a year later.

Chizik’s 2012 squad that had a decent amount of future NFL players, but started 1-7 and notched November wins against New Mexico State and Alabama A&M.

When was the last time Auburn was 0-4 in the SEC?

You don’t have to look far for this answer. Prior to 2024 it happened in 2023. Freeze is 2/2. The 2023 squad was a 4th-and-31 stop from starting 0-4 and finishing 4-4 in conference play. It looks like the inability to close out games has carried over from that play to the 2024 team.

When was the last time Auburn lost five games in a row?

With the win over Kentucky Auburn avoided its fifth straight loss. With Harsin part of recent Auburn football history, you don’t have to look back far to find this one either. His recruiting atrocities have had a major impact on the poor results so far in the Freeze Era.

Harsin was fired prior to his fifth-straight loss late in 2022. He lost consecutive games to LSU, Georgia, Ole Miss and Arkansas, was fired, and Auburn went on to lose at Mississippi State in overtime under Carnell Williams. Auburn then rebounded for back-to-back wins under Williams, something that would have been a longshot had Harsin remained.

When was the last time Auburn went this long without an SEC Championship?

Auburn had an impressive seven SEC titles from 1983 to 2013. Seeing as the Tigers are mathematically eliminated from the championship game this year, the streak is at 11. That’s the longest streak since 1990 to 2003. Of course Auburn threw in an 11-0 season in 1993 and watched Florida and Alabama in the SEC Consolation game, two teams the Tigers beat that year.

This is also the seventh straight season without making it to the SEC Championship game, which is the longest streak since the game’s inaugural contest in 1992.

When was the last coach to start his Auburn tenure 8-12?

Auburn has a strange history of coaches having exceptional seasons early in their tenure. Dye went 11-1 in his third season, won the SEC, and though Auburn doesn’t claim it some polls had the Tigers as the national champions that season.

Bowden went 11-0 in his debut season in 1993 and extended his streak of wins to 20 games.

Tuberville inherited a depleted roster, but took his second team to Atlanta to play for the conference title in the year 2000 after hitting the junior college circuit hard and striking gold with running back Rudi Johnson.

Chizik picked up Cam Newton in his second year and led Auburn to a 14-0 season and the BCS National Championship.

Malzahn took over the previous 3-9 team of 2012 and played for the national title in his first season. The Tigers went 12-2 with an SEC Championship in 2013, and Malzahn went on to win 17 of his first 20 games.

Harsin’s the only coach since Barfield to never find success, and thus far Freeze has yet to get it done on the field. Following the win at Kentucky, his record on The Plains is 9-12. Barfield, who started 6-12 as Auburn head coach, is the last to equal that level of on-the-field failure.

When was the last time Auburn went six seasons without a first-round pick in the NFL draft?

Auburn has several players on the roster and another handful of commitments who are eventually going to have a chance to be a first-round pick in the NFL draft. However, there aren’t any coming out for the 2025 who have a chance to be in the first round. That’ll extend Auburn’s streak to five years as Derrick Brown and Noah Igbinoghene were the last in 2020. Keldric Faulk could be the streak breaker in 2026. The sophomore defensive lineman looks like a lock to go top-25 after his junior season.

The Auburn program went five years from 2015-2019 without a first-round NFL draft pick as well.

It can be understood why the Auburn Family is a little down these days. The Tigers are one of the top football programs in the history of this game. Despite the lean years, Auburn ranks No. 14 on the all-time wins list. These have been lean years, but with Freeze stacking top-10 recrutiing classes, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.