Groundhog Day for Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers

Every which way you slice It, Groundhog Day defeat is getting pretty hard to stomach for furious Auburn Tigers fans.

It definitely feels like six-more weeks of winter for Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers. / John Reed-Imagn Images

For all the talk from Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze this week about how things needed to change, the same old predictable scenarios played out in Columbia, Mo. on Saturday. Auburn lost to the Missouri Tigers 21-17 after leading 17-3 in the second half.

It was just Auburn's second loss in 152 games when leading by 14 in the second half. Previously, they were 150-1 under such scenarios.

Detractors of the football team have long tried to poke fun at Auburn for its Tiger mascot and "War Eagle" battle cry. "Are you the Tigers or the War Eagles?!?" They'd sputter over their Milwaukee's Best.

Well, right now, the Auburn Groundhogs seems to fit.

The 2024 Auburn football experience pic.twitter.com/NXwbNMCdmn

— Aubie’s son🦅 (@AubieSon) October 19, 2024

Auburn is 0-3 this year in games they had at least an 85% chance of winning in the second half according to ESPN's Gamecast. Auburn peaked at 94.3% against Missouri and was still at 88% with 1:44 to go in the fourth quarter.

Auburn fans, did you feel like it was 88% chance of winning in the fourth quarter?

Throw in turnovers, dropped passes, failed blocking assignments, a pivotal missed field goal, the predictable sideline verbal volleys directed toward the increasingly fragile looking Payton Thorne during the 21-17 defeat against Missouri, and you have another very average Tigers' 2024 game day.

Where it all leaves the Auburn program is undoubtedly in crisis at the 2-5 mark. Well at least embattled head coach Hugh Freeze is well versed in rolling out some of his excuses. It's copy and paste time again folks.

"We seem to not make the right call as coaches or the right play from time to time in critical moments and that's kind of been the story the whole year," Freeze admitted after another catastrophic defeat. 

If only Thorne's perfectly placed 3rd quarter pass to senior wide receiver Robert Lewis hadn't sailed through his clutching mitts and made it a 24-6 Auburn lead, well, you get the ever so gloomy picture.

There was more than a touch of inevitable Hollywood drama in the Missouri morning air when beat up Mizzou quarterback Brady Cook miraculously returned to the field of play after his nasty looking ankle injury.

One Towns McGough missed field goal, and then Cook's spectacular 78-yard connection with WR Mookie Cooper all the way to the Auburn 2 yard line, and in seconds we found Auburn's positive momentum was snuffed out for good.

Inspiring levels of fight and belief which were showcased by the heroic and hobbled Missouri signal caller can only be admired rather jealousy in truth.

Furthermore, Cook's emotional post game reaction via ESPN only served to remind Tigers fans of what they are most crucially missing on their own defeatist looking squad.

"I am emotional, I am," Cook told ESPN reporter Taylor McGregor during the post-game interview. "Mizzou means so much to me. You know the first six games, you know, they haven't gone the way I wish they would've in a lot of ways. To come out here, the first drive and get hurt and to be down and think that I'm not going to come back in the game, and then find a way. And we just manifested. We get it done. We fight. We fight. We fight. And we win. I'm just emotional right now."

Fact is, only the significant wins on the recruitment front are keeping coach Freeze afloat right now; the repeated failures in basic coaching and subsequent on-field execution are plain to see.

As long as Freeze is recruiting at a top-10 level for the rest of the season, his job is safe going into year three.

Holding the line seems the likely course of action behind the scenes in the hushed meeting rooms of the Auburn program, but it doesn't make it the right decision ultimately.

Freeze is clinging on for sure, but the seismic moves aren't made by a furious fan base - they only happen much further up the food chain.

So on we go with the pretty deflating status quo of failure and internal recriminations down on the Plains, all of which will be served up over the days to come.

Embrace the drama folks, it's all that's left in this vicious circle.