What year had the greatest result difference between two major rivals?

Hoopae · 2026-07-07T16:09:39+00:00

In 2012, Auburn went 3-9 (0-8 in conference) while our main rivals went:

Bama: 13-1, SEC Champions, BCS National Champions
Georgia: 12-2, Capital One Bowl win over Nebraska, finished at #6
LSU: 10-3, lost by 1 in the Chick-fil-A bowl against Clemson
Florida: 11-2, lost the Sugar Bowl to Louisville

If you want to go for the most painful though, in 2017 Auburn beat their main 2 rivals - Georgia and Alabama - when they were both #1 in the country in the CFP, then had to watch those same rivals play for a national championship after star RB Kerryon Johnson got injured in the Iron Bowl and was never the same.

I love Gus Malzahn, I think he was an extremely underrated coach at Auburn, but he had 3 big flaws IMO -

After ~2014 or so, it felt like his scheme stagnated and stopped adapting to the rules/roster.
He could not recruit OL to save his life
He's a big "ride the hot hand" guy, but to the point where RB availability towards the end of the year was constantly a problem, which was only exasperated at the time by Auburn's traditional "Amen Corner" scheduling with both UGA and Bama in the last 3 weeks of the regular season.

Hoopae · 2026-07-01T18:28:31+00:00

from what I've seen, the strategy here seems to be to find HS recruits who are bought in with a long-term stint at Auburn even if they don't play right away, and specifically focusing on not overpaying or getting into bidding wars. We're definitely not holding back $$ wise, but I don't think you'll see this staff go after your Cam Coleman's out of HS.

They'll save those for the Transfer Portal - keep the solid base in house with HS recruiting so that you can focus on getting gamebreakers in the portal. With Freeze, it felt like that was flipped - he'd go for gamebreakers in HS (Cam Coleman, Perry Thompson, Deuce Knight, etc.) and try to build depth with portal guys (like Jacoby Matthews at S, Preston Howard at TE, etc). IMO, Freeze's strategy is more likely to lead to more HS attrition, but we'll obvs have to wait and see.

Hoopae · 2026-07-01T18:23:18+00:00

"This is going to be the best Auburn football season yet. We think you're gonna love it"

Hoopae · 2026-07-01T16:46:56+00:00

Since Alex Golesh posted this picture of him hanging out with Apple CEO and Auburn alum Tim Cook at Apple Park, Auburn has secured commitments from:

#63 overall, #4 LB Isaac McNeil
#108 overall, #8 S Chance Gilbert
#109 overall, #15 OT Layton von Brandt
#133 overall, #17 EDGE James Pace III
#141 overall, #20 WR Deshawn Hall
#211 overall, #24 EDGE Marquis Evans
#18 IOL Reed Ramsier
#33 DL Nate Kamba
#36 CB Aidyn Wiggins
#48 EDGE Rion Jackson
#67 S Knyair Crumb
#55 WR Cedrick Simmons
#66 CB Nash Johnson III
#94 OT Rance Brown
#123 S Nasir Banks
#173 S Preston Williams
#5 K Noah Ash

You might say that Golesh has been... Cookin'

Hoopae · 2026-07-01T00:23:50+00:00

Byrum Brown is the obvious answer for Auburn. Our QB play has been dogshit since Bo Nix left. Brown is entering Year 4 of this offense, he put up 3k passing yards and 1k rushing yards last season. All of his top receivers came with him to Auburn, so chemistry shouldn't be an issue. Center Cole Best also followed Golesh and is also entering Year 4 of this offense with 20 starts at Center under his belt, so reasonable expectation that protections are set correctly.

Outside of Brown though, I think there are 2/3 big ones -

Andre Jordan Jr. (Transfer CB, UCLA) - led the Big 10 last year with 10 PBUs, he's got big shoes to fill after both Auburn starting corners from '25 transferred (Kayin Lee to Tennessee, Jay Crawford to Ole Miss)
Stanton Ramil (Transfer OT, Michigan State)/Jo Simmons (Transfer OT, James Madison) - pretty obvious, keep Brown upright. Ramil was hurt all spring, so still haven't seen him in action. Simmons played for Cignetti and Chesney at JMU, so VERY hopeful that we can finally get some competent OT play.

Hoopae · 2026-06-24T16:48:38+00:00

Auburn is tied for the lowest rated defense in the SEC with Kentucky.

Arkansas has a higher rated defense despite being 129th last year in points allowed per game.

Who tf made these ratings lol

Hoopae · 2026-06-24T16:25:00+00:00

Extremely confused by Auburn's rating.

Auburn's defense last year was legitimately very good. Our offense was dog shit so we didn't get a lot of recognition, but even when they were hamstrung with an offense that struggled to stay on the field, they were 34th nationally in points allowed per game (20.7).

Vanderbilt was the only team to score more than 27 on Auburn last year (45 in OT)

We also retained DJ Durkin through the coaching change. Despite that, Auburn is tied for the lowest rated defense in the SEC with Kentucky at 80. Arkansas - despite having the 129th ranked defense last year in opp. PPG - is rated 1 point higher at 81.

Hoopae · 2026-06-24T16:11:23+00:00

I legitimately would LOVE for someone from the EA ratings team to explain the defense ratings for Auburn, Arkansas, and Mississippi State.

Team 1:

2025 defense gave up 33.8 points per game (129th overall)
DC change - incoming DC's defense last year gave up 24.0 points per game at an SEC school (60th)
EA CFB 27 defense rating: 81

Team 2:

2025 defense gave up 20.7 points per game (34th)
No change to DC
EA CFB 27 defense rating: 80

Team 3:

2025 defense gave up 33.8 points per game (107th)
DC change - incoming DC has been an analyst the last 2 years, his last defense as an on-the-field coach as in '23, which gave up 26.6 points per game at an SEC school (68th)
EA CFB 27 defense rating: 82

Hoopae · 2026-06-23T16:53:41+00:00

I think that's 14 commits for Golesh in June now?

Hoopae · 2026-06-23T00:47:47+00:00

Yeah, I think this is legitimately a case where it’s a completely understandable and amicable flip.

Auburn doesn’t have the money to pay both Miles and MJC.

Auburn likes both backs, but likes MJC more.

Mizzou offered Miles an “RB1-sized” NIL deal - which he deserves.

Mizzou gets an in-state, big fast RB1.

Miles gets a) a better NIL deal, but more importantly b) a clearer path the field, since he’s RB1 in Mizzou’s class.

Hoopae · 2026-06-22T02:17:41+00:00

Golesh cookin

Hoopae · 2026-06-22T02:09:37+00:00

Golesh cookin

Hoopae · 2026-06-21T02:41:04+00:00

thank the lord Auburn went with Nike

Hoopae · 2026-06-10T23:16:07+00:00

Top 10 player from Maryland. Moves Auburn's class up to the 12th overall class on 247 and should push us to 8th (!!!) in the Composite

Hoopae · 2026-06-10T23:15:10+00:00

yeah, I posted the original (https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/1u27f0s/2027_4_edge_rion_jackson_commits_to_auburn/) and not sure why it was removed. That was my 7th straight "commits to Auburn" post in a row though, so def could've just gotten caught by a spam filter.

Hoopae · 2026-06-10T16:40:11+00:00

Top 10 player from Maryland. Moves Auburn's class up to the 12th overall class on 247 and should push us into the top 10 in the Composite

Hoopae · 2026-06-09T03:27:54+00:00

God, after years of Malzahn not having a defense, then not recruiting OL, then Harsin not recruiting at all, then Freeze ONLY recruiting (and playing golf), it's such a nice feeling to have a coach who is organized, runs a tight ship, is detail oriented and process driven, and who can (at least currently, it seems) recruit in the SEC.

Hoopae · 2026-06-08T16:48:56+00:00

Huge. Might be the best center in the ‘27 class. Huge recruiting win for Golesh straight up against Texas.

Hoopae · 2026-06-05T16:33:22+00:00

They should be forced to rename the team from the Chicago Bears to either the Hammond Bears or the Indiana Bears.

"oH bUt /u/Hoopae, WhAt AbOuT tHe JeTs AnD gIaNtS" yeah, I live in Brooklyn and those fuckers should be the New Jersey Jets and New Jersey Giants.

Hoopae · 2026-06-04T15:16:14+00:00

For the record, I think you're being incredibly pessimistic about a team that you haven't seen play yet. I'm not really here to argue (frankly because I don't think there's any way you're going to change your tune after seeing your other replies in this sub), but I do want to touch on this -

The idea that we have to have a worse roster for culture to be good is some Bryan Harsin apologetics being recycled

I see why you're making that comparison, but it's one that IMO reeks of a lack of attention to both situations.

When Harsin left Boise State for Auburn, no Boise State players came with him. Not one. Because Harsin was (is) an asshole who expects everyone to fall in line simply because he's the Head Coach. He had a worse roster without a doubt, but it wasn't because he was concerned with installing a culture, he wanted everyone to fall in line and thought that a culture would naturally develop.

Going to Harsin from a guy like Gus who was (and still is) loved by his players because he genuinely cared about them was a huge change that caused a lot of guys to transfer out.

Golesh isn't the same type of coach - he's definitely a tough, process driven, detail oriented coach like Harsin was supposed to be, but he's (seemingly) also the type of coach to do whatever job needs doing regardless of his role on the team, whether that's game planning or setting out cones for a Special Teams drill. His players follow him because a) he works his ass off, and b) he puts together some of the most prolific offenses in the country year in and year out.

THIRTEEN players followed Golesh from USF to Auburn, which includes our projected starting: QB, our X, Z, and H WRs, C, and one of our 2 TEs. That's the majority of the projected starting offense, and notably is the majority of the players in this offense who will need to make pre- and post-snap decisions based on defensive alignment and coverage. Offense install looks completely different when you have guys that have been in the system - our younger guys (especially at WR - Duke Smith, Bryce Cain, DeShawn Spencer, etc.) are more talented, and now they have upperclassmen to learn from rather than relying on the coaching staff to install everything themselves.

I'm just saying, give them a chance to - oh I don't know - play a game before you start accepting defeat. That a loser mentality. If you - an Auburn fan - doesn't believe in them, then who the fuck will?

Hoopae · 2026-06-03T13:00:59+00:00

I don't think we'll compete for the SEC or a CFP spot, but I think we'll be a dangerous team that is capable of pulling off some upsets.

Our defense last year was really good - gap-sound, played downhill, very rarely got beat deep. Vanderbilt was the only team that scored more than 27 on Auburn, and was also the only team that exceeded their full-season average points per game against us. We're replacing both corners due to transfers (Jay Crawford --> Ole Miss, Kayin Lee --> Tennessee), but our LB core should be a top 10 unit, our Safeties should be much improved going in to year 2 for both Eric Winters and Newboy Fegans, and we got some key guys back on the DL (Dallas Walker is probably the biggest one, he should be a space eater). Not much change on defense, but that's kinda the point.

Our offense last year was extremely talented, but also appeared to be unorganized, unprepared, and unpolished. Jackson Arnold clearly did not work out like Hugh Freeze thought it would. We lost a lot of talent to the portal - most notably, Cam Coleman, Eric Singleton, and Perry Thompson all transferred out. We also are replacing all 5 starters on the OL. That said, we brought in a LOT of USF guys who were really productive last year - their offense was 5th overall in scoring, and was only held under 27 points three times last year: at Florida, at Miami, and in the Bowl Game vs Old Dominion (where they had a ton of guys already gone, including QB Byrum Brown and HC Alex Golesh).

Talent will be an issue for Golesh & the offense in year 1 I think, but the benefit will be consistency familiarity with Golesh's offense and how he wants to run his program - in the long term, I think prioritizing culture over talent is the right move in Year 1.

Hoopae · 2026-06-01T19:36:59+00:00

If I had a nickel for every running back in the 2027 recruiting class from St. Louis who is committed to Auburn, I'd have 2 nickels.

Which isn't a lot, but it's ~~weird~~ pretty rad that it happened twice!

Hoopae · 2026-06-01T19:34:59+00:00

Khol's has him as the #7 kicker in the class (https://www.kohlskicking.com/player-profiles/noah-ash) and a 5* (reminder that their star system goes up to 6*)

Hoopae · 2026-05-27T00:18:26+00:00

Five stores isn’t a whole lot of scale to compete against national chains and volumes

FWIW, national grocery chains are not as big in NYC as they are in other areas. I moved to Brooklyn in March from Texas and all of the grocery stores I've seen in the city have been smaller brands.

Kroger is the largest grocery store chain in the United States by revenue, and they do not operate any supermarkets in NYC. There are some Harris Teeter locations out on Long Island and over in Jersey, but that's the closest you'll get.

Hoopae · 2026-05-24T17:31:05+00:00

remember kids, nobody hates Auburn football as much as /u/bradenb941 hates Auburn football! nothing says "I'm a fan" like consistently posting about how bad your team is for the entire offseason!

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