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.
In Other News...
Auburn Already Has A Byrum Brown Problem It Can't Ignore
Byrum Browns early run with Auburn has already turned into one of the seasons quiet pressure points. Through three weeks, the transfer quarterback has completed just under 65% of his passes for 780 yards, with five touchdowns and four interceptions, while much of the offense has depended on his decision-making to keep drives alive. Even with those numbers, CBS Sports left him off its top-50 quarterbacks list, a sign that national respect has not caught up with the role Auburn has asked him to play.
Browns decline as a runner has also changed the feel of the offense, since his rushing production and scoring on the ground are both well below what he delivered a year ago. For Auburn, the concern is bigger than one ranking or one rough stretch, because the offense has struggled overall and Brown remains central to how much it can recover. The Tigers need more than steady quarterback play now, and the gap between what they are asking Brown to do and what the offense has actually produced is getting harder to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn's O-Line Shuffle Is Putting Fresh Pressure On One Freshman
Auburns offensive line came out of the Florida game with plenty to clean up after allowing seven sacks and never really getting the run game going. For first-year head coach Alex Golesh and offensive coordinator Joel Gordon, the larger concern is how quickly they can settle a front that is still being adjusted on the fly, with true freshman Wilson Zierer making his first start in the middle of the shuffle.
Zierers debut gave Auburn a glimpse of both the upside and the growing pains that come with asking a first-year player to handle a major role this early. The inconsistency was part of the story, but so was the support around him, as teammates pointed to his work ethic and attitude after the game. The question now is how much more responsibility the Tigers are willing to place on him while the line keeps searching for its best version. [Read more 🡒]
Auburns Homecoming Test Just Got More Dangerous Than Fans Expected
Auburns Homecoming weekend now comes with a little more edge than usual, as the Tigers prepare to host undefeated Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon. The 3:15 p.m. CT kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium will put Auburn in front of a team that has already handled every challenge it has seen, and it arrives with freshman quarterback Jared Curtis set for his first road start.
Auburn coach Alex Golesh has already pointed to Curtiss talent while also noting Vanderbilts aggressive defensive style, which adds another layer to a matchup that looked dangerous from the start. The game will be carried on SEC Network and the Auburn Sports Network, and for Auburn, the timing makes it feel like more than just another conference game. [Read more 🡒]