Auburn football is in a very good place right now if “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning” on WJOX-FM Birmingham host and former Tigers offensive lineman Cole Cubelic’s word isn’t just hot air and hyperbole and is to be believed. Cubelic went on 440 Sports and made the claim that the Auburn football program is more aligned now than at any time the former Tigers center can remember in recent history.
“This is what they wanted,” Cubelic said (h/t Auburn Daily). “John Cohen went along with it and went and got him, brought him in, and made it happen. But I think from the athletic director’s perspective, with the head coach, with the power brokers and the people inside that administration. I don’t know if I could tell you when the last time that there was this much alignment.”
As the offseason rolls on, the praise continues to be heaped upon new AU athletic director John Cohen and first-year head coach Hugh Freeze. That’s setting high expectations on the Plains, but it’s also building a palpable buzz that has Auburn viewed as a 2023 sleeper.
Auburn football analyst ‘had concerns’ about Hugh Freeze at first
Cubelic was, like many, skeptical of Freeze upon being hired for the Auburn football head coaching job due to his scandalous past — falling for the hit pieces that the likes of AL.com launched at the Oxford, Mississippi native.
“When Hugh got hired, I had my concerns,” Cubelic said. “Most of them were sort of about him personally, mentally, and emotionally really more than anything else. But just how would he handle some of the criticism? How would he handle teams, programs, and other fan bases that were against him?”
From the ashes of those controversies, though, has come alignment. That just means more than the local media’s crusade for clicks.