Talking season is upon us, but when you’re the team who hasn’t finished above .500 since 2020, talk is cheap.

That’s the boat Auburn football is in going into the 2025 season. Despite the disappointing stretch, there’s a striking level of confidence in the program going into Year 3 of the Hugh Freeze era.

Freeze is 11-14 through his first two seasons at Auburn, but has landed back-to-back top 10 recruiting classes. This offseason, the Tigers added the eighth-best transfer portal class in the country, supplementing a roster that returns many of its young contributors from 2024.

The roster development overseen by Freeze is one of the main reasons he believes Auburn will be in the College Football Playoff discussion in 2025. He made that declaration publicly during his press conference on the main stage at SEC Media Days.

“Now, we’ve got to stay healthy, and we need the ball to bounce our way a couple times this year instead of against us,” Freeze added, “But that’s our full expectation.”

Auburn’s players don’t feel any different. The Tigers’ three representatives at SEC Media Days were all fitting spokesmen for Freeze’s critical third season in different ways.

Keldric Faulk shared Freeze’s confidence. A junior defensive end from Highland Home, Alabama, Faulk is Auburn’s top NFL Draft prospect going into 2026. He was also the highest ranked player in the Tigers’ 2023 high school signing class, a class Freeze had to salvage and put together within weeks of becoming head coach.

“We have the talent and the coaching staff to do it,” Faulk said of being in the CFP discussion. “Coach has brought in so many players he views that can take us over the top. He brought in his own coaching staff and his own players this year.”

Faulk is arguably Auburn’s most important player on defense. He’s the team’s best pass rusher and with two years of starting experience, he’ll undoubtedly be one of the group’s leaders in 2025.

Connor Lew is a similar figure to Faulk in the context of the 2025 season. He was another cornerstone of Freeze’s 2023 class and is going into his third year as a starter. Lew doesn’t have the NFL hype of Faulk, but helps make up the foundation of Auburn’s experienced offensive line.

He was asked at SEC Media Days what’s different about the team in 2025 and his answer spoke to the importance of this season.

“I just think there’s an increased level of intensity,” Lew said. “Everything is just more urgent, the focus. But there’s also a little bit of confidence too. We know we have the talent. Now, it’s just all about executing.”

Jackson Arnold may be the most important player on the team this season. The junior quarterback arrived on the Plains in January after transferring from Oklahoma.

The 2025 campaign could be just as much a turning point for his career as Freeze’s at Auburn. Arnold left Norman after a shaky 2024 season in which he began as the starter, was briefly benched midseason and trudged through a frustrating year that featured injuries all around him and two different offensive coordinators.

For Auburn, Arnold is the quarterback solution for a team that was held back by inconsistent quarterback play in Freeze’s first two years. He’s the centerpiece of an Auburn offense that could define Freeze’s tenure on the Plains.

Both parties are confident that the relationship will work. Arnold told reporters at media days that his fit in the offense was the biggest factor in his decision to transfer to Auburn. That’s without even mentioning Auburn’s multiple All-SEC receivers, an upgrade from what Arnold had at Oklahoma.

“My confidence is extremely high right now. I credit that to my whole teammates,” Arnold said. “I think having their respect and their trust and going out and doing what we did in the spring, I feel like the offense had a really efficient spring, which instilled a lot of confidence in me.”

Auburn’s players are saying the right thing, so is Freeze. On paper, the talent is improved, showcased by six Tigers earning preseason All-SEC honors. However, the media still picked Auburn to finish 11th in the conference, meaning the confidence is still mostly confined to inside the program.

Fortunately for Auburn, opinions in July don’t matter. The season opener at Baylor is a little less than a month and a half away, and the only way for the confidence to spread outside the building is to win.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m