{"id":69469,"date":"2024-12-01T16:28:31","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T21:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=69469"},"modified":"2025-09-13T16:10:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T20:10:57","slug":"auburn-has-to-consider-its-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/01\/auburn-has-to-consider-its-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Auburn Has To Consider Its Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Crimson Tide won the Iron Bowl for the fifth straight year, and Auburn finished the season at 5-7. That mark also clinches a fourth consecutive losing season for the Tigers. That had not been seen on the Plains since the 1946-50 seasons. In the 28-14 loss, Auburn had plenty of chances against Alabama on Saturday, forcing four turnovers in the game. The Tigers reached the Alabama 25-yard line four times in the first half with just two Ian Vachon field goals to show for it. \u00a0Jalen Milroe<\/a> was also a problem for the Tigers. The Alabama quarterback threw for 256 yards and rushed for 104 more. He also scored three rushing touchdowns. Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne<\/a> put up good numbers. In his final game, Thorne passed for 301 yards and one touchdown.<\/p>\n

Auburn Has To Consider Its Future<\/h2>\n

First Half Chances<\/h3>\n

Of the four turnovers by Alabama on Saturday, three of them occurred in the first half. After Auburn was forced to punt on the opening drive, Alabama committed their first turnover when it looked like they were poised to score. Alabama receiver Ryan Williams gained 19 yards on a reception but a forced fumble by Kaleb Harris stopped the drive. The Tigers moved the ball into Alabama territory with the help of a 19-yard run by Jarquez Hunter<\/a>, but the drive stalled. Vachon would miss a 39-yard field goal.<\/p>\n

The two teams would go on to exchange punts before Alabama scored the first points of the game. After running back Jam Miller put the Crimson Tide into Auburn territory, Milroe had runs of 11 and 19 yards. The latter was a touchdown to give Alabama a 7-0 lead with 3:18 left in the first quarter. Auburn would turn the ball over on downs, but the defense stepped up and stopped a promising Alabama drive. Milroe was intercepted by Caleb Wooden with Alabama at the Auburn 35. The Tigers were only able to get a field goal, and Alabama responded with another touchdown. It was Milroe again, but this time for one yard.<\/p>\n

Milroe would give Auburn another chance after a fumble of his own. With 1:40 remaining until halftime, Milroe was hit by Jalen McLeod<\/a>, and the ball was recovered by Philip Blidi. Again the Tigers moved the ball and got as far as the two-yard line. On fourth and goal, head coach Hugh Freeze opted for a field goal by Vachon to make it 14-6. This move was questionable due to Freeze stating on the broadcast that field goals were not going to win the game. The head coach seemed to lack faith in his team to score from two yards away.<\/p>\n

Alabama Dominates Third<\/h3>\n

The Crimson Tide opened the third quarter after receiving the kickoff. The Auburn defense needed to get a stop to give the offense a chance to cut into the lead. The Alabama offense got started with a 24-yard pass to Williams to reach midfield. The drive would end with a two-yard touchdown run by Justice Haynes to give Alabama a 21-6 lead.<\/p>\n

After the Auburn offense could not gain a first down, the Alabama offense found the endzone in six plays. Milroe scored his final touchdown of the game on a 17-yard run to make the score 28-6 with 6:54 left in the third. He found Germie Bernard<\/a> for 26 yards on the drive to get to the Auburn 24. Bernard had a big game catching seven passes for 111 yards.<\/p>\n

Auburn\u2019s Last Stand<\/h3>\n

After an unsportsmanlike penalty on Malachi Moore that resulted in tempers flaring on both sides, the Tigers offense found some energy. Thorne led a 10-play drive that resulted in a 29-yard touchdown catch for Cam Coleman. The Tigers added two more points on a run by Hunter to make the score 28-14 with 2:31 remaining in the third.<\/p>\n

On the following drive, Milroe fumbled once again as he was hit by McLeod. Keldric Faulk picked up the fumble, and the Tigers had the ball at the 49. Two plays later, Thorne found KeAndre Lambert-Smith for 17 yards to the Alabama 30. With all the momentum on their side, the Tigers looked primed to make it a one-scale game. Freeze could not help himself though. The Tigers unnecessarily went with a trick play that resulted in Hunter throwing an interception caught by Bray Hubbard.<\/p>\n

Alabama Closes the Game<\/h3>\n

After the interception, Alabama started on their own five. While the drive did not result in points, the Crimson Tide possessed the ball for 7:45. The Tigers did not get the ball back until 3:57 left in the game. Five plays later, Thorne would force a pass downfield to Rivaldo Fairweather that was intercepted by Zabien Brown sealing the game for Alabama and Auburn finishes the season at 5-7. The Tigers now have plenty of questions<\/a> to be answered and Freeze should be firmly on the hotseat for the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

\"Auburn
Photo Credit: Will McLelland-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Crimson Tide won the Iron Bowl for the fifth straight year, and Auburn finished the season at 5-7. That mark also clinches a fourth consecutive losing season for the Tigers. That had not been seen on the Plains since the 1946-50 seasons. In the 28-14 loss, Auburn had plenty of chances against Alabama on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2751,"featured_media":69473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35574,35583,2],"tags":[34467,35,162,33147,79,1546,7091,33149],"class_list":["post-69469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-alabama-crimson-tide","category-auburn-tigers","category-featured","tag-2024-iron-bowl","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-cam-coleman","tag-college-football","tag-hugh-freeze","tag-keandre-lambert-smith","tag-ryan-williams"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2751"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78194,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69469\/revisions\/78194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}