Maybe Jon Sumrall was still riding the high of getting his first SEC win as a head coach on the road in his home state. Maybe he was just trying to pump up his own supporters before Ole Miss comes to town. Or maybe he simply couldn’t resist taking a swipe.
Whatever the reason, Florida’s coach added another layer to Auburn’s home-field embarrassment after the Gators walked out of Jordan-Hare Stadium with a 44-39 win last Saturday.
“Our FAU game, our crowd I felt was livelier than what we played in on Saturday night,” Sumrall said on the Brandon Walker College Football Show. “So I can only imagine what that’s gonna feel like when you bring a top-five team into this place.”
That landed hard in Auburn. Hyperbole or not, the comment hit a nerve.
Sumrall clearly respects the late Pat Dye.
He does not seem to extend that same respect to Pat Dye Field.
And why would he? Why would anyone?
Nick Saban may still think Jordan-Hare is haunted, and Alabama still seems to find ghosts there every other year, but the intimidation factor has mostly disappeared for the rest of the SEC.
This week brings Vanderbilt to the Plains, and for first-year Auburn coach Alex Golesh, it reads like a must-win in more ways than one. Not to save his job.
To keep the idea of a winning season alive for the first time since 2020. To restore some dignity to a home field that has been trampled.
To give a loyal fan base something back.
Vanderbilt is one of 10 SEC teams that have won in its last visit to Auburn. That list goes beyond Alabama, which has won three straight there, and Georgia, which has taken four in a row. It also includes Arkansas and Kentucky.
The numbers paint a bleak picture for Auburn’s home league form. The Tigers are the only SEC program that has not posted a single winning conference season at home since 2020, when they won four of five league games in Jordan-Hare before Gus Malzahn was fired.
Since the start of the 2021 season, Auburn is tied with Mississippi State for the most SEC home losses at 16. Only Mississippi State, with four, has fewer home conference wins than Auburn’s five over that stretch.
Florida’s win last week pushed Auburn’s SEC home losing streak to five games. Only Mississippi State, at 13, and Arkansas, at 8, have gone longer without a conference victory on their own field.
Even with Sumrall’s jab hanging in the air, Auburn fans keep showing up and buying into SEC Saturdays. They haven’t reached the point of sackcloth, ashes and paper bags the way Arkansas fans have, but the patience can’t last forever without some payoff.
Golesh deserves a chance to fix it. He can’t be blamed for Auburn being much closer to the SEC basement than the top, but he took the job knowing what needed to change. Vanderbilt, still in the middle of a rebuild after two years of the Diego Pavia experience, looks like the right opponent at the right moment.
Pavia fueled Vanderbilt’s 17-7 win at Auburn in 2024 and its 45-38 overtime victory over the Tigers last year in Nashville. He has handed things off to Jared Curtis, the highly touted freshman who wears Pavia’s number but still has a long way to go before matching what came before him.
Saturday offers Auburn a chance to lean on Jordan-Hare again, this time against a true freshman making his first college road start. The questions about the stadium’s old edge are only getting louder.
The crowd needs to answer back.
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On the other side, cornerback Dijon Lee Jr. faces a tricky assignment against South Carolinas receivers, while special teams could also swing field position if punt returner Vicari Swain gets space to work. Both Shane Beamer and Kane Wommack have already offered clues about how they view the matchup, and for Alabama, the key question is whether those pressure points become advantages once the game starts. [Read more 🡒]
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Auburns SEC Opener Suddenly Carries More Pressure Than Expected
Auburns SEC opener is landing with a little more weight than it looked like a few weeks ago, and that is only making the trip by South Carolina more interesting for Alabama fans watching the league race unfold. Conference games have started to define the season more sharply, and this one comes with the usual mix of pressure, preparation and a reminder that early results can change how everyone views the road ahead.
South Carolina at Alabama is part of a slate that also includes Vanderbilt at Auburn, with recent performances, coaching situations and player health all feeding into the preview work around the league. The expectation is that these matchups will tell us more about where teams really stand, but the bigger point for the Tide is clear: once SEC play starts, every weekend seems to carry a little more consequence than the last. [Read more 🡒]