Auburn midseason progress report: Grading the Tigers’ first half of the season
Auburn football finally has a moment to exhale.
After a rather tumultuous start to the season, the Tigers find themselves sitting 2-4 in their first bye week, feeling like they’ve left points and results on the field.
And it’s hard to blame them. Outside of a 31-13 reality check against Georgia last week, you can make the argument that Auburn’s other three losses all should’ve been wins.
From turnovers to miscommunications to costly penalties and every other type of mistake, most of the Tigers’ failures have been their own doing.
Fortunately for Auburn, the season is far from over, and while any hopes of being a contender in the Southeastern Conference are gone, there are still games to be won and the goal now shifts toward finding four more wins and making a bowl game.
“We’re coming into this bye week 0-0 and we want to start the new season off 1-0. That’s our goal and that’s what we’re gonna work to achieve,” defensive end Keldric Faulk said after the Georgia loss.
Here are our grades for Auburn at the halfway point of the 2024 season:
Offense
Grade: C+
Auburn’s offense in 2024 is arguably every fan’s biggest point of frustration.
And it’s not because the unit isn’t good, it’s much better than 2023’s putrid offense. The frustration comes from the end product not matching the in-game production.
What does that mean? Auburn ranks second in the country in plays of 40+ yards, fourth in plays of 20+ yards, fifth in in yards per completion and 34th in total offense, yet still sits 2-4 and is 64th in points per game.
Those numbers create a strange duality for the Auburn offense. The Tigers clearly know how to move the ball but can’t stay out of their own way enough to enjoy the rewards of moving the ball.
The turnovers created a volatile quarterback situation in the beginning of the season. Starter and fifth-year senior Payton Thorne was benched after throwing four interceptions against Cal in Week 2.
That made way for redshirt freshman Hank Brown, who impressed against New Mexico, but suffered a similar fate as Thorne in his SEC debut, getting benched at halftime after throwing three interceptions. Brown hasn’t appeared for Auburn since.
Thorne has played mostly well since getting the starting job back, but even his best game of the season so far was marred by a game-changing pick-six against Oklahoma.
The biggest difference in Auburn’s offensive success from last season to this one is the wide receiver room. Penn State transfer KeAndre Lambert-Smith is on pace to break Auburn’s single-season receiving record and has been the offense’s most productive player alongside running back Jarquez Hunter.
Overall, the conflicting facts of Auburn’s first six games on offense makes the unit hard to grade. If it was graded purely on how well it could move the ball, an A wouldn’t be a reach.
But there’s more to offense than that. And as long as games are decided by who scores more points rather than who gains more yards, Auburn is no better than average.
Defense
Grade: B
Plain and simple, Auburn’s defense deserves better.
The unit has been consistently good over the course of the season so far, but can never catch a break from the offense. Auburn has only given up 30 or more points once, and that came on the road against Georgia.
Against Arkansas, a team that ranks 13th in the country in total offense, Auburn held it to 24 points and 334 yards, forcing two turnovers. That performance gets forgotten, though, due to the offense’s five turnovers and Arkansas’ 24-14 win.
Auburn’s pass rush and defensive line play have been the biggest highlight, led by sophomore defensive end Keldric Faulk. Faulk is tied for second in the country in pressures and has five sacks on the season.
He and BUCK linebacker Jalen McLeod have been Auburn’s two best pass rushers, and its depth on the defensive line has gone a long way early in the season.
Another positive sign for Auburn’s defense is its continued success despite being increasingly young. True freshmen Malik Blocton, Kaleb Harris, Jay Crawford and Demarcus Riddick have all become key contributors in the defense and haven’t looked out of place.
Crawford, who earned a starting spot at corner after Champ Anthony’s injury, is the highest graded freshman corner in the SEC, according to Pro Football Focus. Blocton and Harris have been contributors since the beginning and Riddick carved out a role for himself primarily as a third-down pass rusher and quarterback spy.
It hasn’t been all positive for the defense, though. Penalties have been an issue, especially on third downs. Struggles with containing mobile quarterbacks also plagued the Tigers early in the season, oftentimes getting lost in coverage when the quarterback left the pocket.
Overall, though, the defense has been Auburn’s most consistent unit by far. It hasn’t necessarily been elite, but it’s what kept Auburn in games where the offense turned the ball over at will.
Special Teams
Grade: C
Special teams haven’t been horrible for Auburn this season, but the unit has made enough mistakes to keep it from earning a higher grade.
The biggest reoccurring problem is penalties, but other mistakes have cost the Tigers at times too. Keionte Scott had a couple muffed punts early in the season, even forcing the coaching staff to consider a change at punt returner.
That change never came and Scott hasn’t muffed a punt since Week 3 against New Mexico.
Auburn’s kicking has also been inconsistent, with Alex McPherson still yet to play a game due to a gastrointestinal illness. Towns McGough has kicked in his place and is 4-for-8 on the season. However, three of those misses were from 50 or more yards.
The special teams issues haven’t been enough to cost Auburn any games yet, but it’s hard to say the unit has impacted games in a positive way for Auburn either. Jeremiah Cobb has been a bright spot on kick returns, but the unit’s overall success doesn’t deserve much better than a C grade.
Coaching
Grade: D+
Hugh Freeze and Auburn’s coaching staff aren’t the ones turning the ball over. They aren’t the ones committing third-down penalties and they aren’t the ones leaving their defensive assignments on third down.
However, they’re in charge of making sure those things don’t happen and the disconnect between the staff and players has appeared at the worst times this season.
One recent example came on a critical fourth-and-one against Georgia where Thorne was stopped on what looked like a zone read. After the game, Freeze claimed Thorne “absolutely didn’t go with what we had called on the play,” but varying accounts of what play was called came from Thorne and Freeze in the following days.
Regardless of who was right, there was an obvious miscommunication and that falls on coaching. The same types of miscommunications seemed to consistently pop up on defense against mobile quarterbacks early in the season.
The other part of the staff’s low grade comes from game management. There was no worse example of this than against Oklahoma.
At the end of the half, Auburn’s poor clock management resulted in a redzone drive earning zero points after the field goal unit was rushed on the field, causing a miss from McGough. Even when McGough got another chance after a penalty, he missed again.
When Auburn had the lead and a chance to salt the game away in the fourth quarter, rather than relying on its consistent run game, the offense continued to throw the ball.
On one drive that gave Oklahoma good field position after a missed field goal. On the other, it was a pick-six that ended up being the difference in the game.
Moments like those change games and can define seasons. They’ve defined the first half of Auburn’s season and making the right decisions at critical times like those are down to coaching.
Overall
Grade: C-
There are a number of signs that point to Auburn being better than what its current record says.
But its record still says 2-4, a mark that no matter how promising the performances might be, is far below expectations. Auburn continues to find ways to lose, and that may be the clearest mark of a bad team.
Auburn’s talent isn’t bad, though. It isn’t elite, but it was good enough to compete against and likely beat Cal, Arkansas and Oklahoma, if not for bad turnovers and mistakes.
The team isn’t bad enough to get a failing grade, but the results don’t allow it to earn a high mark either. Maybe what the Tigers accomplish in the second half of the season ends up defining the 2024 team. But until results start turning around and Auburn starts beating itself, the team deserves a below average grade at best.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m