Auburn has lost three straight games and is about a touchdown underdog on Saturday night vs. Ole Miss, but one SEC observer believes the difference between the Tigers and other teams in their conference is not that large.

During a segment on SEC Nation Saturday previewing the Auburn-Ole Miss game, SEC Network analyst and former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow said he thinks the Tigers are on the right track under first-coach Hugh Freeze. After fellow analyst Paul Finebaum said the main issue is how quickly Freeze can choose between Payton Thorne and Robby Ashford and “figure out who his quarterback is,” Tebow said it’s more complicated than that.

“I don’t just think it’s figuring out who his quarterback is,” Tebow said. “It’s how to use them and will they do what he’s kind of training them to do and that’s one being able to hit the downfield pass and being able to throw that accurately to give his receivers a chance. And I also think some of the receivers have to really step up to win some of those one-on-one matchups, because this team is not as far away as many people think they don’t need as many players.

“There’s a few key positions that if they got some guys that are a little more consistent, I think … it would change how competitive they are very fast.”

A third analyst on the SEC Nation panel, former Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers, said he’d like to see Auburn get back to what it did late in the 2022 season under interim coach Cadillac Williams — run the ball with authority. The Tigers also ran the ball particularly well in a 27-20 loss to top-ranked Georgia on Oct. 1

“You’re halfway through the season at some point, you’ve got to go, ‘This is who we are and you know what, we’re not a team that’s going to push the ball down(field) consistently,’” Rodgers said. “So I keep going back to last year when Cadillac took over. Everyone and their mother knew they’re running the ball every single play. And what did they do? They ran it right at (Texas) A&M, they ran it right at Bama. They didn’t win (all) those games down the stretch, but they were effective at bullying people.

“They had a mentality that said, you know, ‘we’re going to run it, we know we’re going to run it. We don’t care.’ … Look at this roster, (Freeze) has done a great job of creating opportunities. He’s been creative. But sometimes when you get too creative, you get away from what you do.

“Well, get Jarquez Hunter going downhill, get Jeremiah Cobb — (who) had a big game last week — get him going downhill. Sometimes you just got to go, ‘We’re bad on third down. We’ve got to run the ball right at guys early and often, set ourselves up, because this is who we are.’ And that’s what I hope they kind of get back to today.”

Kickoff between Auburn (3-3, 0-3 SEC) and Ole Miss (5-1, 2-1) is set for 6 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The game will air live on ESPN.