ATHENS, Ga. | No, starting 2-4 is not precisely how Hugh Freeze, his coaching staff, players and Auburn fans expected this season to go. No, another loss to rival Georgia, the eighth in a row and ninth in a row in Athens, was not the desired result for Saturday. And no, Auburn won't take any moral victories away from its third-straight loss this season.
But for the first time in quite a while, the Tigers showed some major fight in Sanford Stadium, pushing the Bulldogs into a battle into the fourth quarter and making Kirby Smart's team earn it.
That hasn't always been the case in this now-lopsided rivalry, especially in a stadium that has become a nightmare for Auburn. There was the 42-10 blowout in 2022 when Bryan Harsin threw in the towel early with a fake punt. A 27-6 loss in 2020 in Week 2, in which the Tigers put up 216 total yards, was hard to watch for even the most diehard fan. I could go on, but you know the history.
It seemed as if when Auburn took the field in Athens, the effort wasn't there in the past. And while there were some players who still looked as if they were somewhere else, the majority of the Tigers put it on the line.
And yes, the final was 31-13, but Auburn had its chances to make it closer. The Tigers twice got into the red zone before settling for field goals. That isn't going to beat a top-five team in Georgia, especially when the talent gap is still a problem. A fourth-and-1 call where Payton Thorne got stuffed (and didn't hand it off to Jarquez Hunter) handed the Bulldogs a short field. You know what good teams do with that.
But there was fight, especially from KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Keldric Faulk, Hunter and, yes, even Thorne. While he didn't make every decision correctly, the quarterback still held his own against a defense out for blood.
"Proud of Jarquez, love his effort," Freeze said. "Can’t say enough about Keldric Faulk and the leader he is, the young man he is. He’s everything you want in an Auburn football player and an Auburn man. And man, he lays it all on the line like Jarquez does."
It would have been easy for the Tigers to come in and lay down. Everything pointed toward an easy victory for the Bulldogs after their close loss to Alabama last week. The line was a monstrous 24 points, and UGA was so confident about this one heading into the season that the university made it its homecoming weekend.
And it would have been easy, especially after the way this season is going where everything that could happen bad has, for the Tigers to bring a lackadaisical effort. We've seen that happen before. And if you need to know what I'm talking about, ask someone else about the 1998, 2008 or 2012 seasons.
Still, Freeze expects even more, and according to the Auburn head coach, that sits on him.
"Well, truthfully, I expect more fight than what we saw for the 60 minutes today," he said. "I think I told my team in the locker room, and it's my job to get that out of 'em, and I'm going to die trying, and we're going to get determined and going to find the ones who want to fight for 60 minutes."
It's hard to look at the positive because of how the first six games of this season have gone. Losses to Cal and Arkansas were nothing even thought of entering Freeze's second season, and the collapse against Oklahoma could have broken many teams. This is not what anyone envisioned, especially Freeze, his staff and the veteran leaders who have been around for some time and stayed in hopes of turning this program around.
There's still a lot of work to do. Mental mistakes continue to stub this team's toe, but for once in Athens, they looked as if they cared. We don't know if that will result in more wins than expected for the rest of the season, but it was a good start.
