Auburn fans are justified in being frustrated with the football program for failing to defend Jordan-Hare Stadium this past Saturday night in the Tigers' first conference game of the season.
Are they justified in wanting head coach Alex Golesh fired and AD John Cohen removed so soon into the 2026 season, though?
Well, partially.
Alex Golesh is just getting started and is showing good signs
Understanding that the five-year malaise Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze caused was always going to mean stalls amidst the starts with the guy that followed, Golesh is not being given a fair chance in the seat right now.
Being angered by giving up 44 points in Golesh's SEC debut in a loss to Jon Sumrall's Gators is completely justified. Ignoring all the positives from the game is voluntarily taking a black pill that doesn't need to be taken just yet.
Auburn outscored Florida in the fourth quarter. So what, right? The Tigers still lost and were down by double digits for much of the second half.
Well, the last time Auburn outscored an SEC opponent in the fourth quarter was against Arkansas in a win last season. Freeze finally pulled struggling QB1 Jackson Arnold for Ashton Daniels to beat the Razorbacks on the road. Essentially, going against his instincts finally nabbed Freeze a win. It was too late, though. Freeze was fired the very next week after scoring three points against Kentucky under the lights on Pat Dye Field.
The other outing was against Texas A&M in September 2025. AU scored seven in the final frame, while the Aggies scored three. TAMU won that game 16-10.
Those were the only two times Freeze's teams did what Golesh's guys accomplished on Saturday.
That's tangible progress.
John Cohen's tenure has not meaningfully helped Auburn athletics
Cohen is a different story. There's no need to keep letting him run the ship after four years in which the football program has completely fallen from grace. In East Central Alabama, losing football prestige is unforgivable.
The Kent State-Ohio State game just got better ratings than Florida-Auburn in Week 3, for Pete's sake.
Cohen had nothing to do with Bruce Pearl building his basketball program or the results. He helped navigate NIL, sure, and that, of course, resulted in a run to the Final Four.
At what cost, though?
Allen Greene IV was highly criticized as he was on his way out. His infamous swimming pool meeting with Harsin five years before Potato Man's hiring is a moment that will live in Auburn athletics' infamy forever. Greene at least stuck the landing with Suni Lee's massive impact on the Plains, though.
Cohen has not done anything to get the Tigers back to the standard AU had under Jay Jacobs. If anything, the theory that he and Freeze arrived to tank Auburn to help their former Mississippi schools checks out when you consider AU, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State's trajectories.
Golesh can stay. There's a chance he has the personality to make things right on the gridiron again.
Frankly, Auburn can fire Cohen into the sun at this point. His four years have not bettered the brand in any conceivable way. Quite the opposite, actually.
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