Observations: Alabama 28, Auburn 14

RB Jarquez Hunter (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

TUSCALOOSA – Auburn entered the 2024 college football season as the No. 9 seed in the SEC 247Sports Team Talent Composite – a measure of how much star recruiting power a squad has.

Alabama was No. 1 in the SEC and No. 1 in the country. His score of 1,018.28 points was the highest in the history of the metric.

With that in mind, no one would have been surprised in August to see the two teams end November with Alabama beating Auburn by two touchdowns at home.

Yes, Auburn is in a rebuild, and this is one Hugh Freeze wants to recruit primarily through high school recruiting rather than relying too heavily on the transfer portal. The Tigers don’t have the sheer amount of talent that other rivals have at this point, and they fell even further behind in the post.Gus Malzahn Epoch.

“I’ve said it before: Some of the teams we play, and in this particular game, have had top-five recruiting classes for many years in a row,” Freeze said. “We had a top 10 class and hopefully we are preparing for a second one. Nobody actually wants to hear that. I know it’s true.”

But Freeze even admits that the talent gap excuse only goes so far. He said that himself Saturday night after Auburn’s 28-14 loss to Alabama.

“At the same time, we had chances to win games with who we are,” Freeze continued. “And that’s the frustrating part for everyone, including me.”

In a frustratingly fitting finale to the 2024 season — one in which Auburn fell to one fewer win than last year despite posting better yards per game on both offense and defense — the Tigers had their chances to make that talent gap real to close battles for an upset against the loaded Crimson Tide.

However, to pull off such a win, Auburn would have to be better at executing and taking advantage of the opportunities that an error-prone Alabama would present.

Aside from a late drive in garbage time, Auburn finished the game with six scoring chances in which it had the ball inside the Alabama 40. Alabama, meanwhile, only had five. Alabama also had four turnovers before Auburn had one.

But Alabama scored 28 points on its five scoring chances, an average of 5.6 points per chance. Auburn scored 14 points on its six scoring chances, an average of 2.3 points per chance.

Worse, Auburn took those four Alabama turnovers — including two inside its own territory — and turned them into a total of two made field goals.

Surprises require underdogs to capitalize on their breaks. Even Auburn’s wild four-overtime home win over Texas A&M last week was a shining example of this. But the Tigers, who were at a greater disadvantage outside of Jordan-Hare Stadium against a better team, didn’t do that this time.

Instead, Auburn lost another game in which it felt like it had a real chance, and its 2024 season is now over. The Tigers have now had four straight losing seasons for the first time since the late 1940s.

Freeze and his staff can recruit. They have the opportunity to potentially sign a top-five player later this week. They also did a good job putting together a team that doesn’t give up even in difficult situations and plays until the end.

They will have a chance to further improve their roster and make necessary changes this offseason. But entering year three, there is a real feeling that a program like Auburn should be doing more in the win column.

And Freeze will tell you that himself.

Here are four observations about Auburn’s 28-14 loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl.

TE Rivaldo Fairweather (Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)

When Auburn posted a much-improved yards-per-play mark in September but still went 0-0 against power conference opponents, it was believed that the Tigers would eventually start scoring the points that reflected the offense once they stopped, to spin the ball ball so much over.

Then came October, when Auburn took a dip in production due to road losses to Georgia and Missouri. The Tigers managed nearly 500 yards in a much-needed win over Vanderbilt, but only scored 24 points for all that explosiveness. And just seven points in a home loss to Vanderbilt caused the offense to falter again.

Auburn averaged 6.1 yards per play against Alabama on Saturday, its most in an Iron Bowl since the 2014 Shootout in Tuscaloosa. Still, it only scored one touchdown.

This was Auburn’s offense in 2024: A unit that was better move the ball, but even worse at score It. The Tigers averaged just 18.6 points per game against power conference competition, marking the worst mark for the program since the disastrous 2012 season.