“Hope isn’t eternal.”

Welp, this came more quickly than expected.

Before the stadium had begun to empty, with the result of the game still in the air, Auburn lined up quarterback Holden Geriner for his first meaningful snap of any kind this season and tucked him behind tight end Brandon Frazier. There were just over five minutes remaining in the third quarter, and the score still tied at 14. The plan was a double pass, with the ball tossed backward to Geriner and he would find an open receiver deep downfield.

Except he only had one blocker, who was shoved out of the way immediately and Geriner was sacked on the trick play.

It set up third-and-19 still on the Ole Miss half of the field. Auburn ran up the middle with Jarquez Hunter and gained four yards. Punter Oscar Chapman ran on the field.

And it was in this moment that all the optimism that has characterized Auburn’s season thus far drowned into boos. The hope of Auburn fans had been exhausted. It appeared as a rock bottom.

It was the first time Auburn’s inept offense had been booed this season.

In that moment, the Hugh Freeze honeymoon ended.

Yeah, the personnel situation isn’t great.  But Freeze has this rep as an offensive guru that isn’t playing out on the Plains.

…  There is frustration from the fan base. Auburn’s offense is on pace to be historically bad.

Auburn has barely averaged more than 100 passing yards against SEC opponents. It’s the worst rate for Auburn this century.

And for all Hugh Freeze has talked about the talent gap Auburn has and the recruiting that still lies in the future, these repetitive failures of offense come down to coaching. Auburn made the same mistakes of alignment, protection, route running and simply poor quarterback play after a bye week where it planned to fix it.

The talent gap doesn’t cause Auburn to have 12 men in the huddle for a third down in the fourth quarter. Auburn was penalized twice for illegal substitutions. That’s coaching. And the fans noticed it.

Auburn’s passing offense was already ranked among the 10 worst in the nation before another bad day Saturday. Auburn had 122 total passing yards but 47 of them came on a dump-off pass to running back Jarquez Hunter later in the fourth quarter.

Eh, that’s a real shame.