A 5-7 team should take positivity where it can get it. This, Auburn fans, is the place for you.
After all, a 5-7 team doesn’t describe who Auburn will be in 2025. That was last year. The mistakes that led to Auburn recording 3 pre-October losses at Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time ever are in the past. All that matters is this season. This season, Auburn has arguably its most talented receiver room ever with a completely overhauled quarterback situation. That alone should be worthy of some positivity on the heels of the program’s worst 4-year stretch since the Jimmy Carter administration.
Sorry. Bad vibes out. Good vibes in.
There’s no better time to be positive than talkin’ season. That’s what I always say. Each of the next 16 days, we’ll look at the best things about each SEC team. This daily series will align with the SEC Network Takeover, which runs from Saturday, June 28 until July 13, AKA just before talkin’ season officially kicks off at SEC Media Days on July 14.
Mark your calendars! ?️The @SECNetwork Takeover returns June 28-July 13Each of the 16 @SEC schools will takeover the network for a day of school-centric programming with 24 hours of the year's best momentsMore on #SECNTakeover ➡️ t.co/LJHK4ml6wk pic.twitter.com/WScfaJo7Tp
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) June 23, 2025For those keeping track at home, that’s alphabetical order.
So far, here are the teams that we’ve done:
Alabama ArkansasToday, we’ll continue with the best things about Auburn in 2025:
Best offensive player: Cam Coleman, WR
Eric Singleton might be the safer bet here, but I’m all in on Coleman. Why? Just because he was a 5-star recruit entering that all-important Year 2?
Once he was healthy in the final month of the season, you saw all the talent on display. In Coleman’s final 3 games of his freshman season, he totaled 22 catches for 306 yards and 6 touchdowns. Ryan Williams and Coleman each had 8 touchdown grabs, a mark that no SEC true freshman wide receiver has topped since Amari Cooper had 11 in 2012. Spend enough time watching Coleman and you’ll see the next-level body control that’ll make him a star in the SEC (and beyond). I’m squatting on the nickname “Sane George Pickens.”
(You’re more than welcome to steal that. Just throw in a “as Connor O’Gara called him” and we’re good.)
What else do I love about Coleman? He didn’t have a single drop after September. A guy who is that reliable while possessing the ability to make highlight-reel grabs is an elite combo. Coleman is the real deal. My No. 2 returning receiver in the SEC has a legitimate shot at becoming Auburn’s first first-team All-SEC receiver since Frank Sanders in 1994.
My bad. Positive vibes only.
Best defensive player: Keldric Faulk, Edge
Faulk could be Auburn’s first first-round NFL Draft pick since 2020, but whether that happens or not, there’s still a reason why he’s the obvious choice here. This is based on production so far. As a sophomore, he recorded 11 TFLs and he delivered his best performances against elite competition. Against Georgia and Alabama alone, Faulk had a combined 4 TFLs, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. The 6-6 edge-rusher is getting a ton of way-too-early NFL Draft buzz because of his versatility. Last season, he had 45 pressures and 23 run stops for a top-30 scoring defense.
One of the top 5 players I've studied so far for the 2026 #NFLDraft is #Auburn DL Keldric Faulk? Hybrid skillset at 6'6 288? Can win multiple ways from multiple techniques? Athletic / Strong / Powerful? Productive? Turns 20 this fallTop 10 pick in any draft #WarEagle pic.twitter.com/Cffx7ciBBi
— Fran Duffy (@FDuffyNFL) June 13, 2025He could get a bit of the James Pearce Jr. treatment where he gets scrutinized if his sack production takes a dip, though it’s not like he’s coming off 14-sack season. Faulk had half of that. He’ll be at the top of every scouting report as a no-doubter preseason All-SEC guy.
Not too shabby for a 19-year-old.
Best freshman: Deuce Knight, QB
Are we sure that Knight will redshirt 2025? I’m definitely not, though I do think that Hugh Freeze will opt for other options in an ideal world. Then again, turning to a true freshman quarterback for a coach with a ton of pressure doesn’t seem like an ideal world for Auburn. Make of what you will with that and what it would say about Jackson Arnold (more on him in a bit) and Ashton Daniels.
But Knight earns this honor after a decorated recruitment saw him stick with his Auburn pledge after flipping from Notre Dame in the fall. The southpaw will have a learning curve, especially in a Freeze-led offense that typically hasn’t turned to first-year quarterbacks in the scheme. There’s a scenario in which Knight is the option after Arnold or Daniels gets hurt (nobody is wishing injury), and his skill set befuddles an SEC defense en route to a victory. That’s more likely than him stepping in and being QB1 for the majority of SEC play, at least not at this stage of his career.
Even if that’s what Knight does in his first year on The Plains, that could be as impactful as any freshman on Auburn’s roster.
Best game: Week 14, Alabama at Auburn
I initially had Week 11, Auburn at Vanderbilt. I mean, it’s the 4th edition of the lopsided Diego Pavia-Freeze matchup (don’t forget that Pavia beat Freeze in his final game at Liberty back in 2022). That’ll be appointment viewing, no matter what the records are.
But come on. It’s still the Iron Bowl. Will Alabama be fighting for a Playoff spot? Will Freeze be fighting for his job? We don’t know. What we do know is that Alabama is 3-3 in its last 6 trips to Jordan-Hare … but all 3 of those Auburn victories happened in the 2010s. Alabama is riding a 5-game Iron Bowl win streak, which is its longest since the Ronald Reagan administration. Actually, that 9-year winning streak from 1973-81 occurred over the course of 4 presidential administrations (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Reagan).
Jordan-Hare might not have yielded an upside in Alabama’s last 2 visits, but it did produce a 4-overtime game in 2021, and “Gravedigger” happened in 2023. Could we get some more chaos in 2025? Fingers crossed that Kalen DeBoer‘s first trip to Auburn will be a memorable one.
Best reason for improvement: A 1-5 mark in games decided by 10 points or less
A team that finishes in the top 20 in yards/offensive play and yards/defensive play isn’t supposed to go 5-7. But when you turn the ball over 22 times and finish -9 in turnover margin, all bets are off. It didn’t help that Freeze’s 4th-quarter decisions as a play-caller proved costly. Auburn’s best reason for improvement is that it simply can’t be as reckless as it was last year. As in, it would be nearly impossible to make some of the same late-game mistakes that the Tigers made after a year in which they were -42 in the 4th quarter against Power Conference teams.
Does Jackson Arnold fix that? That’s not a guarantee, but Thorne threw 19 interceptions and fumbled 7 times during his 2 years on The Plains. Ball security might not be a strength, but I can’t imagine it’s that bad of a weakness again. For all of Arnold’s struggles — his 27.3% pressure-to-sack percentage was 10th-worst in FBS — he only had 3 interceptions. Of course, he’ll be asked to uncork it a bit more than he did with an injury-riddled group of Oklahoma pass-catchers in 2024.
But above all else, this is about water finding its level for a team that felt like it couldn’t get out of its own way far too often last year. Maybe that combined with a more experienced squad that’s not as freshman-reliant will be better prepared for that.
Sooner or later, a winning season on The Plains awaits. Why not this year?
The best things about Auburn in 2025 Saturday Down South.
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