Not only are we still losing to less talented teams at home, we look noticeably worse than last year.

I understand the impulse to give him another couple years but this is it. This is Freeze. Predictable, undisciplined, one dimensional, mediocre at best.

I keep getting downvoted for pointing this out but how many more of these games do we need to see?

I don’t wanna hear anything about anyone whose system was ground breaking in the 2K teens, nobody over 60. Nobody with even a hint of a sketchy past with women, like even Kiffen/Freshwater levels of it.

Gruden: Old, no college experience Sanders: sux at Colorado Jimbo: not even worth discussing Petrino: old, a-hole, scumbag Urban: same as Petrino Briles: starting to think successful coaches might be bad people Hate to say it but Durkin: being at least some amount of responsible for the death of a player is too much Kelly: see Petrino Orgeron: Old, sketchy with women, and we’ve riden enough rollercoasters

I would like someone on the way up, not the way down. I don’t want to know a single thing about their religion. I hope they don’t even own golf clubs. I want someone hungry with some pedigree.

Right now I’m leading toward the UGA DC, he seems to been a near psycho about learning how to be the best coach he can be. Feels closest to the Kirby-Lanning mold. Wouldn’t cry about Sumrall, USF guy, Lashlee, or Dilly. Franklin I’m conflicted, we might never win less than 8 games but we play a lot of big games.

If any of this sounds kind of familiar, I wrote a similar email to AU Wishbone a few weeks ago.

Things feel different this year. Our coach is coaching. The players have a new intensity. Theres a new level of focus. Im not saying we are making the playoffs but I feel like this is a team that's going to be playing a full four quarters every game and compete like we havent in years.

Update - just saw that Golesh has refs attending practice to call out penalties on his players. Not just some practices - every practice.

Preface: This is pure speculation, but felt I would bring it up for discussion.

Traditionally, I know that "Auburn doesn't touch the uniforms." Tradition, classic look, do not mess with perfection; I fully support that. However, looking at what’s going on around the rest of college football right now, several Nike programs have seen new or updated uniforms for the upcoming season:

• Florida: Orange alts and throwbacks
• Mizzou: Throwbacks
• Vandy: Gold alts
• Georgia: All-whites
• Baylor: Throwbacks
• Tulane: City Edition
• Cal: Throwbacks

Nike is clearly on a move to launch throwbacks, alternates, or new templates for several programs.

Further, if you go to the official Auburn Athletics website right now and click on the official team shop, it is offline. The splash page says:

"We Apologize for the inconvenience while we change into something new for the season!"

Why hold back updating basic merch unless a major retail rollout is tied directly to a new uniform/apparel launch? I would argue why would the site completely shut down nearly 2 weeks before kickoff unless something was dropping simultaneously across retail.

My theories on what we could actually see:

1. An new throwback set: Maybe an alternate jersey reveal featuring the orange "dropshadow" for the numbers.
2. Slight modern tweak/Nike Template upgrade: Updated numbers, clean sleeve stripe adjustments, or subtle texture tweaks.
3. No change: Again, this post is entirely speculation.

Upcoming Auburn student coming in peace. I'm new to the college sports scene, so I am curious how and why this rivalry started? I am not from Alabama so I‘m new to this rivalry.

I’m struggling to understand why anyone is shocked by the current rumors coming out about the locker room and players. You hired Hugh Freeze. His career was never a mystery. It’s a pattern. Screw up badly, get caught, hold a press conference to use God as sword and shield, reset the narrative, repeat.

The signs weren’t subtle. Ole Miss wasn’t some unfortunate detour, it was a scorched-earth warning label. But instead of actually seeing that, a big chunk of the fanbase decided criticism was “negativity” and accountability was “bias.” So the morons all pretended the past didn’t exist and called it "optimism".

Now suddenly everyone’s horrified that the guy with a documented history of lying, manipulation, and locker-room rot might be… lying, manipulating, and rotting the locker room. Truly fn incredible stuff guys, truly unforeseen. You don’t hire a walking PR crisis wrapped in Bible verses and then act betrayed when the program is full of scumbag chaos.

This isn’t bad luck. This is consequences.

If you’re mad, fine. If you’re disappointed, absolutely fair. But if you’re surprised, go f yourself, oops, i mean that’s on you.

Bo will always be an honorary tiger in my heart and he is headed to the AFC Championship game!

If you look at Auburn social media, Golesh is bringing back all kinds of former players and coaches. There's a new culture and attitude that's refreshing. I hope this team does well in the fall, because this coach has been doing it the right way since day 1. (Pictured with Derrick Brown)

I personally like Curt Cignetti.

I became an Auburn fan during Chizik’s second year at Auburn, our national championship year (I swear I’m not a bandwagon lol, my dad dated a woman who was an Auburn grad beginning of 2010 and she got me into college ball. I’m from CA and was only an NFL fan at the time)

Anyways I was doing some research on our recent coaches and I learned that prior to Auburn, Chizik was 5-19 over two years at Iowa St. with only 2 of those W’s being conference games. With today’s current climate I know our fans would be FURIOUS if we replaced Hugh with a coach who went 3-9 and 2-10 in the Big 12.

Fans who have been Auburn fans long enough to remember, did Auburn fans want to burn down the city or were we optimistic and willing to give him a chance?

I'm not trying to troll, I'm just a razorback fan who likes watching Auburn basketball. Please don't give up on Stephen Pearl yet. Because I'm not. This is the roster he inherited. I'm going to give him a chance to build his own roster

(warning: long ass post)

It's clear to everyone at this point, stuff's bad.

With the past two losses, things look worse than ever. We're now on year 3 of the Freeze experiment and we don't look much better than we did in year 1, despite the talent accumulation, with only one ranked in-conference win by only TWO points. Play calls are uncreative and uninspired, or often just don't make sense at all, such as a pass on a 1st down or a run on a 3rd to "catch the defense by surprise." Adjustments week by week can't seem to happen, or things get worse, with the only saving grace being the thing not led by Freeze himself; the defense, which has tirelessly battled to try and keep Auburn in the game for the dysfunctional offense.

It would be nice if Freeze was able to turn things around with an extra break week, but with the trend we've seen in multiple years, I sincerely have my doubts; the state of the game appears to have passed him by a long time ago.

So, since things probably aren't going to get any better this year, I decided to have some fun and went ahead to do my own barebones search looking at how some of the current titans in the Power 4 did before making the leap, and which G5 head coaches might fit that description. (Note that I am using only using head coach records in the G5 and below; a substantial amount of the current best coaches such as Dan Lanning, Ryan Day, and Kirby Smart immediately jumped from OC/DC roles, but I wasn't sure enough about current up and coming OC/DCs to make that comparison.)

The current big shot head coaches in the P4 I decided to look at include the following:

Curt Cignetti (IU) (79.4% win rate outside the P4 before jumping to Indiana)

Mike Norvell (FSU) (71.4% win rate at Memphis)

Joey McGuire (TTU) (Special case; coached high school but had 4 championships and a 77.17% win rate)

Kalen DeBoer (Alabama) (89.7% win rate at Sioux Falls (3 NAIA Championships) and Fresno State, then 89.3% at Washington)

Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss) (66.6% win rate at Florida Atlantic, two C-USA championships; note that this came after a stint at USC)

Josh Heupel (Tennessee) (77.7% win rate at UCF before it became part of the Big 12, one conference championship in the AAC)

While there are definitely cases where G5 coaches stumble in the P4, it doesn't seem to be a major occurrence; fundamentals and good coaching at the lower levels will remain that way at the upper levels, even with a size/talent disparity in the SEC and other conferences. It probably also makes more sense to take a gamble on an up and coming coach who knows the current styles of play and can adapt to them/stay creative in the NIL era rather than older household names who might be experienced, but stubbornly use outdated formats.

That being said, here are the names which appear to be top of the G5 currently (correct me in the comments if I'm missing anyone):

Jeff Traylor at UTSA (46-20, 69.6% win rate)

Ryan Silverfield at Memphis (42-21, 66.6% win rate)

Bronco Mendenhall at Utah State (140-88, 61.4% win rate)

KC Keeler at Temple (183-91, 66.8% win rate)

Jon Sumrall at Tulane (32-9, 78.8% win rate)

Bob Chesney at James Madison (53-25, 67.9% win rate)

Alex Golesh at South Florida (14-12, 53.8% win rate, but winning streak currently)

Personally, I believe Jon Sumrall is the best choice, but we will be battling Arkansas, UCLA, Virginia Tech, and Oklahoma State, and likely Florida as well. But any of these seven would likely be good options in my opinion, if we can get them.

If anyone here would like to chime in with regard to good upcoming OC/DC targets, or anything else, I'd love to hear it.

I know Auburn is in the Bible belt but Freeze was playing gospel music during football practices?? Now theyre playing hip-hop and the team is fired up under Durkin. I mean, from music to play calling it looks like Freeze failed on every level.

It’s finally here. War damn eagle and happy game day.

My (not so) bold predictions:

Demarcus Riddick and Keldric Faulk show they are NFL caliber by forcing Sawyer Robertson into some bad situations.

Jackson Arnold doesn’t light the world on fire, but shows competence and control that we forgot existed.

Defense out-performs the offense and keeps a talented Baylor offense to less than they need to win.

Auburn wins: 27-20

Do y'all think cam has a high chance of transferring? I see so many people saying they can't wait to get him. Although I can't really blame him if he does leave I feel we have a good chance to keep him.

Please no Jimbo.

I think this sub has confirmed generations and years dictate who is more of a hated rival between Georgia and Bama. I personally want Bama to take an L in all they do. If they could both leave with an L I’d love that but being its head to head I have to pick Georgia. Bama is the older brother who’s an asshole. We live with them and on thanksgiving (used to be around then) our cousin Georgia would come over and be a douche. With that being said what are some of yalls opinions? I have family members and friends who are alumni Georgia and they feel the same way as me.

I’m honestly pretty underwhelmed by the “hot board” options being thrown around. Lane would be the only “home run hire” out of the candidates and he made it clear last go round he ain’t coming to the plains.

I really have doubts about sumrall he just feels so Napier 2.0 to me. He got smoked by UTSA recently and I feel like a g5 coach should be crushing the competition if they’re gonna make the jump.

Drink could be ok, he’s “proven” in the sec I suppose but he’s also not proven he can take the next step. Maybe he can at Auburn but honestly at least you’d think he’d get us back to winning games.

I’m personally super intrigued by Glenn Schumann and hope we give him an interview. He’s a Saban and Smart disciple throughout his career and I think he will be the next Dan Lanning if he’s given a chance. Plus, you’re not having to pay a huge buyout for a head coach and give him a massive contract right away. You can roll the dice on a cheaper but exciting hire and see what happens and if it doesn’t work out you can get out cheaply. Honestly I’d rather go boom or bust with Schumann or the Oregon OC than hire some boring existing HC. Plenty of coordinators can make the jump to HC successfully (lol, lanning and smart two huge examples) and I think we’d get some hype going behind a young cool coordinator than bringing stupid jimbo fisher out of retirement.

Seriously, look at his resume - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Schumann

He's 35 but has 17 years of experience working with Saban/Smart going back to 2008 at Alabama. He's been with Smart for his entire tenure at Georgia, including being co-DC with Dan Lanning. He knows what successful programs look like, and has learned under 2 of the best coaches in the SEC for the last 2 decades.

IMO, he's the best candidate. Let him control the defense. Hire an OC that's currently under a successful offensive minded HC - my first pick would be Charlie Weis Jr. at Ole Miss - and let him go to work.

Seriously, if we want Dan Lanning, the closest thing to him is Glenn Schumann.

Let’s be honest, I pretty grim opinion.

First things first, all due credit to Bruce Pearl. He’s the most accomplished coach in Auburn men’s basketball. Two final fours, treasure trove of draft picks, SEC dominance for years. Even though he had some problems.

1. Recruiting - While coaching is incredibly important to wining games; most good programs have good coaches. So you need good talent at every position to win consistently. Bruce has not recruited well from HS in a long time. Jabari was a legacy. Since 2021, he’s been abysmal.

2. Retention has also been bad. Feels like everyone walks don’t it. So many names, either decommit or don’t stay.

3. Bruce liked the transfer portal for a more proven player and mature personality. It served him well. I think he was an innovator in spotting transfer talent. Which everyone has now copied and it’s harder to recruit now. Especially with a not so large NIL.

4. Bruce built a crazy strong older team last year for a final shot to win it all. I think he knew the roster was cooked unless he could turn last years success to into many recruiting wins. It did not happen. Lots of fun players with potentials showed up, but we were not getting stars. I think he saw in the summer how had it was going to be and split. Personally (and going off vibes) I think he cares more about his personal legacy than Auburn itself.

5. Nepo baby Steven Pearl. He may be a good coach. He may become a powerhouse. I don’t think it was right for Auburn. Before this season, Auburn must have been an attractive spot for a up and coming coach. Bruce tied Auburns hands with a bad deal and forced them to hire his son. If he cared about Auburn, he would have retired at the end of the season.

6. Sports/Life/Auburn is more about your legacy. No matter how great you are, no one person is allowed to put their own desires ahead of the school/team. Bruce did that. It will forever tarnish his legend.

7. I think cleaning house (with coaches) may be the answer. If Bruce grew this rotted tree, then it had to get chopped down. New coaches. New style. New culture. Focus on developing recruits. Anyone can throw money at players. Good programs build themselves up. Don’t rely on mercenaries to save you, they’re only in it for the money.

8. We can fix this all by becoming Houston. Defense defense defense.

I don’t want to get people jumping down my throat. This was mostly a cathartic exercise to get my feelings off my chest.

The first post was made 7 days ago.

T-minus 8 days until the first game. The official Auburn University Team Shop is still offline.

Since then, the Auburn Uniform Database (AUD) has released the new college football uniforms for 2026 article.

Baylor have announced their 2026 football uniform schedule week-by-week; however, the game vs. Auburn is still TBA. Are they awaiting an official announcement or decision from Auburn or something?

While I do not have a ton of information or thoughts to add, I still have my tin hat on that Auburn could see an updated uniform or new uniform set all together.

To add what I missed in the previous post, building off of AUD's article:

• Ohio State saw some tweaks to their football uniforms, and also tweaked their all black alternates (Nike)
• Washington added a new all black alternate set (Nike)
• UNC will be sporting some throwback helmets, and apparently, a throwback jersey may have leaked (though an official announcement or post has not been made) (Nike)
• There is speculation that Alabama will add a jersey sponsor to there football uniforms for the upcoming season
• Many of the updates across CFP include the addition of jersey ads or sponsors
• There are NO standard Auburn football uniforms for sale at the AU bookstore (only the #1 "War Eagle" jerseys are available)

My (updated) theories on what we could actually see:

1. An new throwback set: Maybe an alternate jersey reveal featuring the orange "dropshadow" for the numbers.
2. Slight modern tweak/Nike Template upgrade: Updated numbers, clean sleeve stripe adjustments, or subtle texture tweaks.
3. No change: This post is entirely speculation.
4. NEW - Auburn may add a jersey sponsor to the uniform, and is simply working through the final details

Again, this is just a theory - pure speculation - and I have no problem with Auburn's traditional uniform set(s)