Auburn fans are right to be furious after what happened at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday night. Letting the first SEC game of the season slip away the way it did is the kind of result that gets people yelling for heads to roll.
But the two names getting dragged into that anger should not be treated the same.
Alex Golesh is only getting started, and there are already signs that the Tigers are moving in the right direction. Yes, giving up 44 points in his SEC debut against Jon Sumrall’s Gators is a bad look, and nobody should pretend otherwise. Still, tossing out everything else from the game is an overreaction.
Auburn did outscore Florida in the fourth quarter. That won’t change the final score, and it won’t erase the fact that the Tigers were behind by double digits for much of the second half. But it does matter in the bigger picture.
The last time Auburn outscored an SEC opponent in the fourth quarter was against Arkansas in a win last season. In that game, Hugh Freeze finally benched struggling QB1 Jackson Arnold for Ashton Daniels, and the change helped Auburn beat the Razorbacks on the road.
It was one of those rare moments when going against his own instincts paid off for Freeze. Even then, it came too late.
He was fired the following week after Auburn managed just three points against Kentucky under the lights on Pat Dye Field.
The only other time it happened under Freeze came against Texas A&M in September 2025, when Auburn scored seven in the final quarter and the Aggies scored three. Texas A&M still won 16-10.
Those are the only two times Freeze’s teams did what Golesh’s group managed on Saturday. That is real progress, even if the final result still stings.
John Cohen is a different case entirely. His time in charge has not done anything meaningful to lift Auburn athletics, and there’s no reason to keep giving him more rope after four years of decline. In East Central Alabama, losing football prestige is not something people shrug off.
Cohen had nothing to do with Bruce Pearl building the basketball program or producing those results. He did help navigate NIL, and that, of course, led to a Final Four run. But at what cost?
Allen Greene IV drew plenty of criticism on his way out, and his swimming pool meeting with Harsin five years before Potato Man’s hiring remains one of those Auburn moments that will never be forgotten. Even so, Greene at least left behind Suni Lee’s huge impact on the Plains.
Cohen hasn’t brought Auburn back to the standard it had under Jay Jacobs. If anything, the idea that he and Freeze arrived to tank Auburn in order to help their former Mississippi schools starts to look a little too neat when you consider where Auburn, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State have all ended up.
Golesh deserves a little more time. There’s at least a chance he has the personality to get Auburn right again on the field.
Cohen? Auburn can fire him into the sun at this point.
His four years have not improved the brand in any way that matters. If anything, they’ve done the opposite.
In Other News...
Auburn Has A Growing Problem Fans Cant Ignore Anymore
Auburns season opener against Florida still drew a sizable national audience, but the television numbers pointed to a bigger concern simmering around the program. Nielsen ratings showed the SEC matchup attracted 2.1 million viewers, a figure that lagged behind Ohio States game and sat well below the LSU-Ole Miss showcase that pulled 10.9 million, while other SEC games like Kentucky-Texas A&M and Georgia-Arkansas together reached 9.6 million.
For a program with Auburns profile, those numbers are hard to ignore because they reflect more than a one-night audience. They speak to how much attention the Tigers are generating right now, and the frustration is that viewership usually follows relevance, momentum and winning. If Auburn wants to bring more eyes back to its games, the on-field product has to give fans a stronger reason to stay tuned. [Read more 🡒]
Auburns Florida Loss Left One Brutal Reality Hard To Ignore
The loss to Florida left Auburn in an uncomfortable spot in the CBS 138 rankings, where the Tigers now sit No. 39 and still carry a better spot than next opponent Vanderbilt at No. 52. In the short term, that creates a game Auburn should handle on paper, but it also does little to soften the bigger problem hanging over the rest of the season.
What comes next is a brutal stretch, with Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Alabama all still waiting on the schedule. If Auburn is going to get to bowl eligibility, it likely cannot afford to come up empty in all of those matchups, which is why the Florida setback feels bigger than just one loss. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Already Faces One Early Test It Can't Afford To Flunk
Auburn comes out of the Florida loss with plenty to sort through, and the timing is not ideal with Vanderbilt next on the schedule. The Tigers have already shown some defensive leaks and an offense that still has to find a steadier rhythm, which makes this matchup feel less like a breather than a chance to settle the mood around the program before things get any louder.
Vanderbilt does not automatically solve anything, but it does present Auburn with an early measuring stick that could say a lot about where this team is headed. The Tigers will be judged not just on the result, but on whether the defense tightens up and the offense looks more deliberate and functional, because another uneven showing would only deepen the questions that followed them out of Gainesville. [Read more 🡒]