The Auburn Tigers are one of college football’s winningest programs. However, to new fans of the sport, that fact may be hard to believe.
Auburn football has experienced five-straight losing seasons and has fired five coaches since the 2008 season. Still, Auburn fans continue to be avid supporters of the program and deserve a winning team to cheer for. That is the mindset of USA TODAY columnist Blake Toppmeyer’s latest summer ranking, where he breaks down each SEC program and ranks them 1-16 in terms of branding and historical success.
Advertisement
Toppmeyer elected to go away from the “preseason poll” model and instead has focused on the historical significance of each program in the SEC. In this ranking, Auburn checks in at No. 8 behind Florida and ahead of Texas A&M. Toppmeyer says Auburn has proven itself a top program in this sport and needs to pull out of its recent rough patch to return to its best days.
“These are dark days for Auburn,” writes Toppmeyer. “The Tigers endured five consecutive losing seasons, their bleakest period since the late 1940s. Auburn’s loyal fan base deserves better. Recent woes aside, this accomplished program achieved undefeated seasons under three coaches since the 1990s. From Pat Sullivan to Bo Jackson to Cam Newton, Auburn produced decorated stars. Now, it just needs to pull out of this funk.”
The first step in Auburn regaining its identity as one of the SEC’s flagship programs is to find early success under first-year head coach Alex Golesh. Golesh brings a winning brand of football over to the Plains after posting several seasons of offensive success at UCF, Tennessee, and USF before earning his break as a head coach in the SEC, and has brought several of the coaches and players that made his recent stay at USF a success.
Golesh will aim to turn around a program that has lost seven games in each of the last five seasons and has not won a bowl game since 2018. Not only has Auburn struggled as a whole in recent memory, but the Tigers have been on a lengthy losing streak against their top rivals, Alabama and Georgia. Auburn has lost six-straight Iron Bowls and has lost nine games in a row to Georgia. The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs are mainstays in the College Football Playoff picture, and Auburn hopes to join them in the near future.
Alabama takes the top spot in Toppmeyer’s ranking, followed by Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, and LSU. Missouri headlines the bottom five of the ranking, ahead of Mississippi State, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt.
Advertisement
Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__
This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Where does Auburn football truly stand among the SEC’s elite programs?
