After Auburn football suffered an avoidable loss to Cal in Week 2 of the 2024 season, head coach Hugh Freeze made a candid and telling comment on the state of Auburn’s roster at the time.

“We aren’t talented enough yet to play badly and win — and I know everybody doesn’t want to hear that,” Freeze said at his news conference the following Monday.

Throughout most of the 2024 season, that statement rang true. Auburn was the favorite against Cal, but five turnovers led to the Tigers losing 21-14, all but ending any title aspirations before the calendar turned to October.

Then came equally frustrating losses to Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri once Southeastern Conference play started, all games in which the Tigers either led in the fourth quarter, or saw their chances destroyed by turnovers.

Auburn’s roster had talent last season, but it was young in many areas and didn’t have the players at key positions when it was time to finish games. Now, with his third offseason on the Plains underway, Freeze is trying to change that in 2025.

Nineteen transfers have signed with the program since the season ended, and Auburn signed its second top 10 recruiting class in a row, two thirds of the way to the benchmark Freeze has long said Auburn needs to hit to compete at the top of the SEC.

“I thought it would take three full recruiting classes to get an elite roster. We’ve had two top 10 classes in our two full years, and so there’s reason for optimism that we should be able to compete,” Freeze said. “Having said that, we had chances to win games last year too and the year before, and we didn’t. And I have to own that.”

After taking time to study last season’s games and results, Freeze said he mostly attributed the losses to three things: critical downs, turnovers and kicking.

Many of the turnovers were interceptions, and Auburn completely overhauled its quarterback room from last season. To address the kicking game, Auburn signed Southern Miss transfer Connor Gibbs, but is also expected to get a healthy Alex McPherson back, who was rock solid for the Tigers in 2023.

Executing on critical downs isn’t something that one or two transfers at a position will fix, but Auburn has no shortage of experience on either side of the ball, and one of the best receiver rooms in the SEC to bail out the offense when needed.

Freeze said Auburn could have had four more wins than it did last year, even with the talent gap, making him even more optimistic for the 2025 season with where the roster stands now.

“Now we’ve got to coach them well, and we’ve got to be excellent in those critical downs and situations,” Freeze said. “But there is reason for optimism.”

It’s hard to argue against the idea that Auburn’s roster is more talented than it was last season, but football isn’t played on paper.

As Freeze pointed out, Auburn could have won a few more games than it did last season, and the difference wasn’t always just talent. Auburn was arguably more talented than teams like Cal and Arkansas, but couldn’t stay out of its own way enough to win.

Another strong transfer and freshman class gives the Tigers reason to be optimistic for a better season in 2025, but the improvement the program wants to see may take more than just talent.

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