THE Auburn Tigers the defense played hard and the running game was a strength for the first time all season as the Tigers improved to 3-5 on the year and earned his first SEC winnow at 1-4.

Hugh Freeze and staff have done an outstanding job restructuring and rebuilding the roster after the Bryan Harsin era on The Plains, which was an overall disaster. While Freeze’s rebuilding of the program off the field deserves praise, the results on the field have been lackluster.

As the 2024 Tigers approach the end and perhaps another losing year, the program is closing in on some historic low marks that haven’t been accomplished in generations.

When was the last time Auburn had four straight losing seasons?

From From Pat Dye’s second season in 1982 to Gus Malzahn’s final year in 2020Spanning 39 years, Auburn has only had five seasons with more losses than wins. Malzahn was fired during a 6-5 year in 2020, the COVID season, and that was as close as he came to a losing season.

Every other Auburn coach during that span received one, while Tommy Tuberville had a losing season in his first and last: Dye 5-6 in 1991; Terry Bowden 3-8 in 1998; Tuberville 5-6 in 1999 and 5-7 in 2007; Gene Chizik 3-8 in 2012.

Next came Bryan Harsin, whose teams went 6-7 and 5-7, and who destroyed the lineup going forward. Then Freeze went 6-7 last year, extending Auburn’s program streak to three.

Currently, Auburn is experiencing three straight losing seasons for the first time since 1975 to 1977. Ralph “Shug” Jordan went 3-6-2 in his final season in 1975. Doug Barfield went 3-8 in 1976 and 5-6 in 1977.

The last time the program had four consecutive streaks was a five-season stretch from 1946 to 1950: 4-6 in 1946 and 2-7 in 1947 under Carl Voyles; 1-8-1 in 1948, 2-4-3 in 1949 and 0-10 in 1950 under Earl Brown.

After beating Kentucky, Auburn needs four wins in the next five games to stay out of territory the program has avoided since 1950.

When was the last time Auburn went six seasons without a bowl win?

The last bowl victory was Purdue’s 63-14 loss in the Music City Bowl at the end of the 2018 season, meaning Auburn’s current streak is five years without a bowl victory. The Kentucky win was a step in the right direction, but again, Auburn needs to win three of the final four to even make a bowl.

Otherwise, the sixth season without a bowl victory banner would be the longest streak since Dye’s first season after the Barfield era. Jordan won the Gator Bowl his penultimate year in 1974, but went 3-6-2 in 1975. None of Barfield’s teams ever appeared in a bowl game. Dye’s first team in 1981 went 5-6, but his second team ended the streak with a 33-26 victory over Doug Flutie and Boston College in the Tangerine Bowl.

When was the last time Auburn started a season 2-5?

The answer to almost every modern-era question about a bad Auburn team belongs to the 2012 team that went 3-9. So, before 2024, the last team that started 2-5 or worse was 2012. Oddly enough, that team had a group of players who won a national championship in 2010, but 2012 was the worst Auburn team in the modern era, then went back in time. to the national championship a year later.

Chizik’s 2012 team had a decent number of future NFL players, but started 1-7 and posted wins in November over New Mexico State and Alabama A&M.

When was the last time Auburn was 0-4 in the SEC?

You don’t need to look far for this answer. Before 2024, this happened in 2023. The freeze is 2/2. The 2023 team was 4th and 31st after starting 0-4 and finishing 4-4 ​​in conference play. It appears the inability to close out games has carried over to the 2024 team.

When was the last time Auburn lost five games in a row?

With the victory against Kentucky, Auburn avoided its fifth straight loss. With Harsin being a part of recent Auburn football history, you don’t have to look far to find this one either. His recruiting atrocities have had a major impact on the poor results achieved so far during the freeze era.

Harsin was fired before his fifth straight loss in late 2022. He lost consecutive games to LSU, Georgia, Ole Miss and Arkansas, was fired and Auburn went on to lose at Mississippi State in overtime under Carnell Williams. Auburn then rebounded for back-to-back wins under Williams, which would have been a failure had Harsin stayed.

When was the last time Auburn went this long without an SEC championship?

Auburn won seven SEC titles from 1983 to 2013. Since the Tigers are mathematically eliminated from the championship game this year, the streak is 11. That’s the longest streak since 1990 to 2003. Of course, Auburn threw an 11-0. season in 1993 and watched Florida and Alabama in the SEC consolation game, two teams the Tigers beat that year.

This is also the seventh straight season without appearing in the SEC Championship Game, which is the longest streak since the game’s inaugural competition in 1992.

When was the last coach to start his tenure at Auburn 8-12?

Auburn has a strange history of coaches having exceptional seasons early in their tenure. Dye went 11-1 in his third season, won the SEC and, although Auburn doesn’t claim it, some polls have the Tigers as national champions that season.

Bowden went 11-0 in his first season in 1993 and extended his winning streak to 20 games.

Tuberville inherited a depleted roster, but took its second team to Atlanta to play for the conference title in 2000 after hitting hard on the junior college circuit and strike gold with running back Rudi Johnson.

Chizik recruited Cam Newton during his sophomore year and led Auburn to a 14-0 season and the BCS national championship.

Malzahn took over the previous 3-9 team from 2012 and played for the national title in its first season. The Tigers went 12-2 with an SEC championship in 2013, and Malzahn won 17 of his first 20 games.

Harsin is the only coach since Barfield to never find success, and so far, Freeze has yet to find success on the field. After the victory at Kentucky, his record on the Plains is 9-12. Barfield, who started 6-12 as Auburn’s head coach, is the latest to match that level of failure on the field.

When was the last time Auburn went six seasons without a first-round pick in the NFL draft?

Auburn has several players on the roster and another handful of commits who will eventually have a chance to be a first-round pick in the NFL Draft. However, for 2025, there are no candidates with a chance of being in the first round. This will extend Auburn’s streak to five years when Derrick Brown and Noah Igbinoghene were last in 2020. Keldric Faulk could be the streak breaker in 2026. The second-year defensive lineman appears to be a lock to rank among the top 25 after his junior season.

The Auburn program also went five years, from 2015-2019, without a first-round NFL draft pick.

It’s understandable why the Auburn family is a little down these days. The Tigers are one of the best football programs in the history of the sport. Despite the lean years, Auburn ranks 14th on the all-time wins list. It’s been a lean few years, but with Freeze stacking top 10 recruiting classes, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.