Paul Finebaum evaluates how big win over Cal was for Auburn, Hugh Freeze

Wins don’t have to be pretty. On Saturday, Auburn secured a grueling 14-10 road win over California. Despite the Tigers’ tumultuous play, Paul Finebaum believes they should be proud of the victory.

“That was a big win I thought for Auburn,” Finebaum said during an appearance on “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning.” “For however many people made it to the end of the game, rejoice in it. This is a program that has not had many big wins in the last couple of years.

“As ugly as it was, as many records as Auburn broke for offensive ineptitude, It really doesn’t matter. They still have everything in front of them. And that’s my takeaway.”

A tally in the win column tells no story, and Auburn should be thankful. The Tigers were a mess on offense for most of the game, finding just six first downs through the first three quarters of the contest.

Of course, it’s difficult to find forward progress when you can’t keep the ball in your hands. In the win, Auburn committed four turnovers, three interceptions and one fumble. Nonetheless, when it mattered most, head coach Hugh Freeze and his Tigers pulled through.

In the midst of the fourth quarter, trailing 10-7, Auburn pieced together a 69-yard drive to take the lead. Cal never gathered the strength to strike back. When the dust settled, Auburn escaped Cal with a win and a mere 230 yards of offense.

Auburn must quickly move on

While Finebaum recommends Freeze and Co. to enjoy the triumph, he also doesn’t believe they should hover over the odd victory.

“Understanding that we don’t use game film anymore, I would still burn the game film,” Finebaum said. “I wouldn’t look at that. If I were Hugh Freeze I would just forget that experience. I think a lot of things factored into it. Namely, flying halfway across the world [and] playing at a weird time.”

Auburn flew over 2,000 miles to take on Cal. Worse, the game didn’t begin until 9:30 p.m. CT. It wasn’t ideal but Freeze won’t complain about a win.

“I don’t think we could have played any uglier or sloppier on offense. I’m really proud of our defense,” Freeze said after the win. “All the credit goes to to to that side of the ball tonight. There’s going to be nights where we can score 50 and we might have to to win. And there’s going to be times where they got to hold them to 10 and we got to score 11. This is one of those nights with how poorly we played on our offense.”

Auburn will look to remain undefeated on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET against Samford. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.