Auburn Tigers football coach Hugh Freeze and AU AD John Cohen are in serious hot water for their handling, or lack thereof, of Malcolm Simmons' domestic violence charges against his girlfriend. Freeze and Cohen have yet to remove Simmons from the roster despite calls to from all over the college football world, including on the Plains.
AL.com's Joseph Goodman believes Freeze and Cohen are simply waiting on Simmons' girlfriend to drop the charges.
Goodman labeled the behavior "manipulation."
"Are Auburn football players suddenly above the law?" Goodman asked bitingly.
"Simmons shouldn’t be on the team with a case of domestic violence against him, but he’s still listed on the roster.
"Why is Auburn dragging this out, and what’s to gain? Does Freeze and athletics director John Cohen think the woman choked herself?
"Freeze is beginning to compromise Auburn’s integrity. Silence isn’t an option and, in this case, has its own implications. But no one has addressed the alleged assault, and so we’re left to assume that Auburn is hoping the girlfriend drops the charges and the case goes away.
"And the manipulation of an alleged victim of domestic violence continues."
Needless to say, this charge could be what sinks this era of Auburn athletics. If this story goes national, and ESPN reporters start picking up details from digging deeper than AU will allow anyone to get on the story, the school could have its hand forced and move on from Freeze and Cohen.
That will stick with Auburn's reputation moving forward. There's already negative momentum on the gridiron during the NIL era. Other Tiger teams can suffer from the university being type-cast as the place where there are endless claims about virtue and being an "Auburn man," but the reality is that corruption and scandal reign.
In the era of receipts and quote-tweet dunks, being that hypocritical could do irreparable damage when young recruits are choosing schools and know what the orange blue actually stand for.
Much like the inquiry into Bryan Harsin's program in February 2022, this feels like the beginning of the end for Freeze.
You can't lose on the football field, lose your mojo on the recruiting trail, claim that the year-three expectations are merely a bowl game, and then fail to address a stain on your program that calls into question its culture altogether.
College football's grim reaper comes for everyone, even if a portion of fans have a tough time admitting they were wrong about Freeze.