Freeze's First Year is Successful if

[gr82b4au 5,568]

First year I expect a bowl bid and a top 10-15 recruiting class nationally. It shows progress over the worst coach in Auburn history. 
Some of you clearly dislike HF with your takes on how he should do this upcoming season with these unrealistic expectations. Either that or you have not seen our roster for next year. Arson Harsin destroyed this program.. Like sanctions bad. We may need 40-50 new players and we are not the only ones that are going to go after starting OL etc. We will have an entirely new OL and DL. 
This is a complete rebuild. 
Now we can speed it up due to the portal but turning around a program in one year is difficult. 
what we really need is an all star quarterback. That would change everything.

 

[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

6 hours ago, AUfan_UAgrad said:

For me Hugh has to do 1 of the following to say he had a successful year:

• Go 8-4
• Make it to SEC Championship
• Beat Bama
• Beat Georgia

Again that is 1 of those NOT all of them.  Sorry but I was just not a fan of the Freeze hire and was hoping that after our last several hires we would land a big name.  I'm sure most are like me in that they have had zero people say "Wow Freeze that is a great hire".  And for those that say the above is too much to ask, look at LSU this year and they accomplished 3 of those 4 in Kelly's first year.  Also the transfer portal and record number of players that have entered it already, with the talent that has entered and/or the big potential upside for a lot of them, there is no reason we cannot have a quality team.

Honestly, I don't necessarily agree that any one of those 4 has to happen for it to be successful year for CHF. IF we play sound, competitive football and look competently coached all year as well as improve from Game 1 to Game 12 and have a better record than this year I will think it is a success and headed in the right direction. Just way too many intangibles to put that kind of price tag on success. 

The flip side of that is all the folks in here saying only 1 of those is possible...I also disagree with. We are AU. Yes...the roster is in bad shape, but it's a new age in CFB with the portal and NIL. 

I am just taking it one day at a time with Freeze. I think ultimately this is a 3 year deal before we are really in a place where we are primed to make noise. I think we improve next year with the help of the portal and Freeze salvages this class.. In year 2 we likely see a big uptick in recruiting and probably make some noise in the season but lose 3-4. Then 2025 we will be primed. Just my thoughts, but what do I know?

[Viper 3,132]

6 hours ago, aucom96 said:

3 of those are not going to happen. 8-4 could, if we really kill it in the portal. The schedule is as favorable as we could ask, but the roster is in very bad shape. 

I'm not a fan of Auburn's small ball mentality when it comes to the football program, but they seemed determined to stay that course. Freeze is going to have to demonstrate every bit of his supposed recruiting prowess, because he has come into as bad a talent scenario as I've seen since Bowden left town. 

Agreed with everything, but AU def has a chance to beat bammer at home. But for 2011, Saban has always had difficulties winning at JH. 3 of the 4 times he's won at JH, it was with a NC team. The other was 2021 and we let em off the hook with a broken Finley at the keyboard.

[Viper 3,132]

6 hours ago, WarEagle1982 said:

We get them at home where we have beaten them 3 of the last 4 and the one loss went to 4 overtimes.

3 of the last 5. Or 2 of the last 4. Either way, very few other programs can say that.

[aucom96 1,618]

12 minutes ago, Viper said:

Agreed with everything, but AU def has a chance to beat bammer at home. But for 2011, Saban has always had difficulties winning at JH. 3 of the 4 times he's won at JH, it was with a NC team. The other was 2021 and we let em off the hook with a broken Finley at the keyboard.

It could happen, but we need a line, a QB and some depth. That's some big ifs. Even diminished, Saban still has top 5 talent every year. We need every drop of that NIL. 

[Win4AU 4,052]

8-4,9-3 would be a successful season.  Schedule sets up favorable with Cal and Vandy rolling onto the schedule and Bama and UGA at home.  
Top 5-10 recruiting class.  I think top 5 is possible if the NIL is as strong as everyone says.  Probably have another good transfer class too.  
 

Auburn could have one of those good seasons with this schedule too.  A good transfer pull the next couple months will probably make Hugh successful in a lot of folks eyes

Edited December 8, 2022 by Win4AU

[Viper 3,132]

43 minutes ago, gr82b4au said:

what we really need is an all star quarterback. That would change everything.

Takes more than a QB. Even Cam and Nick had All-SEC linemen blocking for them.

Maybe there's some Ziemba's, Berry's, Pugh's, Isom's, Mosley's, Young's, Slade's, Dismukes, Kozan's and Greg Robinson's in the portal.

[Viper 3,132]

8 minutes ago, aucom96 said:

It could happen, but we need a line, a QB and some depth. That's some big ifs. Even diminished, Saban still has top 5 talent every year. We need every drop of that NIL. 

100% agreed. Home field is always a 4-point advantage. Against bammer, it seems to be 7-14 points.

[Viper 3,132]

10 minutes ago, Win4AU said:

Top 5-10 recruiting class.  I think top 5 is possible if the NIL is as strong as everyone says.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

39 minutes ago, Viper said:

Yeah, I don’t think that’s ever been done in history at AU

[icanthearyou 4,462]

47 minutes ago, Viper said:

Takes more than a QB. Even Cam and Nick had All-SEC linemen blocking for them.

Maybe there's some Ziemba's, Berry's, Pugh's, Isom's, Mosley's, Young's, Slade's, Dismukes, Kozan's and Greg Robinson's in the portal.

Yep.  Our blocking is mostly horrific.  You can include the TEs as well.  That should be our priority.

[AUnCullman 601]

With the talent leaving, and the lack of experience we have coming in, Im not as optimistic as most of you. Does that mean we WONT see improvement? Absolutely not! I think we are assuming too much on the Transfer Portal. 

In my mind, if we can get some consistency at QB, it will help. But if we think we are going to get 5 experienced OL from the portal to protect him, your optimistic. If we get 2 that great but is it going to get us 8 wins? If we get 2 DL with experience is it going to make our LB's play improve? We wish. 

What I'm saying is that if we can get some improvement and consistency across all facets of the game FIRST year, then I will be excited going into 2nd year. Then we can start EXPECTING- better recruits, winning more games, getting high tier Portal players, most of all being AUBURN again.

[HabitualChiller 108]

The season literally just ended for Auburn and the expectations are already out of this damn world lol. 

 

Bama and Georgia will be better next year, 8-4 is...actually MUCH more reasonable after looking at the schedule. I'd say we go 7-5 though. 

"Win the SEC"....not even gonna answer that one. Just...how? Not mentioning Bama and UGA, Auburn has LSU in Death Valley. As I said before someone at Auburn needs to speak with the SEC about removing one of those three teams from the yearly schedule. That lineup is absolutely bananas. 

[Viper 3,132]

2 hours ago, gr82b4au said:

Yeah, I don’t think that’s ever been done in history at AU

Got close in 2010 and 2014. #6 both years.

I suppose if Chizik and Gus can do it...Freeze can too?

Maybe AU was Top 5 during one of the Dye years, but there weren't team rankings back then.

[AUINSY 2,228]

3 hours ago, gr82b4au said:

Yeah, I don’t think that’s ever been done in history at AU

Nah, people forget how great our recruiting used to be. Recency bias is killing us. All highlighted rankings are top 10 since 2000. HALF of Auburn’s recruiting classes between 2001 and 2020 were top 10. 
 

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by AUINSY

[AUnCullman 601]

6 hours ago, AUINSY said:

Nah, people forget how great our recruiting used to be. Recency bias is killing us. All highlighted rankings are top 10 since 2000. HALF of Auburn’s recruiting classes between 2001 and 2020 were top 10. 
 

 

I like those websites pulled up on your Internet browser. LOL 

[alexava 6,973]

Become competitive in EVERY GAME and make a bowl. 

[Hank2020 3,199]

11 hours ago, Win4AU said:

8-4,9-3 would be a successful season.  Schedule sets up favorable with Cal and Vandy rolling onto the schedule and Bama and UGA at home.  
Top 5-10 recruiting class.  I think top 5 is possible if the NIL is as strong as everyone says.  Probably have another good transfer class too.  
 

Auburn could have one of those good seasons with this schedule too.  A good transfer pull the next couple months will probably make Hugh successful in a lot of folks eyes

Vandy definitely got better this year.

[AUINSY 2,228]

2 hours ago, AUnCullman said:

I like those websites pulled up on your Internet browser. LOL 

gotta get the Christmas shopping done! 🎄

[Viper 3,132]

9 hours ago, AUINSY said:

Nah, people forget how great our recruiting used to be. Recency bias is killing us. All highlighted rankings are top 10 since 2000. HALF of Auburn’s recruiting classes between 2001 and 2020 were top 10. 
 

 

Good post. I didn’t check 2011. Forgot Kiehl Frazier got us into the Top 5.

[AUINSY 2,228]

25 minutes ago, Viper said:

Good post. I didn’t check 2011. Forgot Kiehl Frazier got us into the Top 5.

It’s so sad nothing came out of some of those guys. I had high hopes for Frazier, Jeremy Johnson, Byron Cowart (who at least made it to the NFL) among others, just to watch them slip/fade into the background 

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

I was promised that he knows ball and is an elite recruiter, so nothing less than a 10-win season should be acceptable. 

[slyinsocal 831]

One step at a time. An already thin roster is losing A LOT. Until that gets straightened out, at this point, it's not fair to establish hard baseline W/L or bowl projections. Demonstrate we can get some good players on a regular basis. Let's accomplish that first.

[WarEagleT 122]

To be successful early, Hughie F. needs to: 

Pull in more 5 stars than Prime... 

[AUINSY 2,228]

2 minutes ago, WarEagleT said:

To be successful early, Hughie F. needs to: 

Pull in more 5 stars than Prime... 

don't derail us! lol