This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-07-28 08:25:57+00:00.
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.
The last team to fall short of the consensus top 25 is Auburn (high = 14, low = 35), who comes in at #26. Sorry, SEC fans, you only have 10 teams in the preseason top 25. In Hugh Freeze’s two years in charge, the Tigers have finished below .500 each season, including not qualifying for a bowl last season. Funny enough, that’s the same exact record that resulted from Bryan Harsin’s two year run, though the Tiger’s brass fired Harsin with 4 games remaining in year 2. So after a 5-7 campaign that saw Auburn lost to the Calgorithm, Arkansas and Vandy, all at home, of COURSE they got the band back together by keeping both Derrick Nix and DJ Durkin as their coordinators. As they say, it just means more… opportunities for Hugh to qualify for the senior PGA!
Roster outlook
For as much ball busting as I’m doing here, Auburn does appear to be pretty well suited for 2025. They rank 22nd in the country in returning production (good for 4th in the SEC), though that calculus does not include QB Payton Thorne (Cincinnati Bengals), lead RB Jarquez Hunter (LA Rams) or top WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith (LA Chargers). They do return their next two top WRs (Cam Coleman and Malcolm Simmons) as well as RB Damari Alston. Junior DE Keldric Faulk, he of 7 sacks in 2024, is back to anchor the defense. But for all the mocking of Freeze’s golfing instead of recruiting, Auburn brought in the 6th best overall class in the country for 2025, ranking 8th in both recruiting and the portal. The only real way to complain about that is that those are “only” good enough for 4th (or 5th in high school recruiting) best in the SEC. The biggest name in the incoming players, and expected to have an immediate impact, is former Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold, but Georgia Tech wideout Eric Singleton, Jr. will increase Arnold’s targets, and 4 star tackles Mason Murphy (USC) and Xavier Chaplin (Virginia Tech) will help keep him upright. Texas A&M S Jacoby Matthews is the only projected portal starter on defense, but just about the entire 2nd string is made up from transfers, so depth should be a strength here.
Schedule and outlook
With their season opening on the road against Baylor in Waco, the Tigers definitely don’t get the chance to coast into the SEC schedule. The rest of their OOC (Ball State, South Alabama, and the penultimate weekend cupcake Mercer) should all be automatic wins, though New Mexico State says hello. Still, they have a pretty good chance to roll into Norman 3-0 and likely ranked ahead of that Oklahoma game, which is followed by at Texas A&M and home against Georgia. That last game comes after a bye, giving Auburn a chance to rest up. Weather that storm, though, and the Tigers schedule seems less brutal, with Missouri at home, at Arkansas, Kentucky at home and then at Vandy before what should be 2 weeks off to prepare for the Iron Bowl in Jordan-Hare. Though Auburn might be the 11th ranked SEC team in these aggregated polls, they avoid many of the teams ranked above them and could have a sneaky good record, which seems more than most r/cfb fans seem to predict.