The Auburn Tigers' new era under Alex Golesh is barely underway, but many fans are writing it off because of the transfer portal losses of former WR1 Cam Coleman and ex-QB1-in-waiting Deuce Knight. Coleman is now set to be Arch Manning's top target, or 1A target to Ryan Wingo, on the Texas Longhorns. Knight committed to Pete Golding's Ole Miss Rebels. Ole Miss tried to flip DJ Lagway from the Baylor Bears but failed, and they also tried to bring Trinidad Chambliss back but failed. It's unclear if Knight will end up as QB1.
Cole Cubelic has no interest in the narrative that Golesh lost irreplaceable talents in the slightest. He just witnessed Coleman and Knight do practically nothing to stop the program's slide into sub-mediocrity, despite a high-priced, elite-pedigreed roster this past season. Coleman was part of a two-year slide from a 6-7 2023 season.
Cubelic claimed Coleman and Knight displayed "clown tendencies" in the locker room, of which Hugh Freeze seemingly had no control over once the rev-share paychecks started clearing.
“The obsession with attempting to build a team on two individuals that have had limited time proving themselves, and have shown some clown tendencies in doing so, is beyond irresponsible, is beyond ignorant, and is just flat out flawed,” Cubelic said during Tuesday’s episode of McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on Birmingham-based WJOX-FM. “… (And Auburn fans are) going to sit around and cry about a guy that has less than 100 catches in two years? We’re going to sit around and cry about a guy that’s played in one game?! You’ve got to stop. You’ve got to stop. No player cripples a program when they leave, not a single one – not to the draft, not to the portal, not to Enterprise Rental Car to start a new career. None of them cripple a program when they leave.
“And if your mindset is of so, that is a loser brain. That is a loser take. That is a loser mindset, to think, ‘Oh, he’s leaving, we can’t win.’ You can’t think that way, and this obsession with these two guys that they’ve propped up any portion of the program. … What FBS games did Auburn win because of the two said players?”
Good luck getting Cubelic to buy into flashy names and games, lacking results, mind you, over a new coach who prioritizes Auburn Creed principles. The man bleeds orange and blue and believes in Auburn and loves it. And the Plains just chose to restore order.
Certainly the golf guy didn't. So why keep the top recruits he overpaid and allowed to under-deliver without any repercussions?
On3's Jake Crain didn't mind Cam Coleman leaving
Those who are hung up on what they saw from Coleman at Central (Phenix City) or his scouting reports are being obtuse about the human element of sports. Coleman was part of a toxic culture that would've been tough for Golesh to bring accountability to, since it was there before he arrived from Tampa.
Golesh is bringing his highest-performing and culture-approved USF Bulls. Not only does On3's Jake Crain approve of the guys Golesh is bringing in, but he believes there's addition by subtraction as it pertains to Coleman and the other guys who left.
"Hugh Freeze was more into feelings and more into ... look, you want to make good people. Obviously, being a good person is one of the most important things, but you're not being paid $8 million to put a Boy Scout troop together. You're getting paid $8 million to win football games, and you can't do that with the culture and identity that he has," Crain told me.
"It's easy to see it because Auburn collapsed in every big moment, basically, during his tenure. And that's not a coincidence. That's not by accident. That is something that is cultivated, and that's why when you see these guys reading, like, I've never, and I'm not saying Cam Coleman isn't talented. He's talented, but he didn't practice hard. Like, these guys, it doesn't work in this sport.
"This isn't basketball. This isn't baseball, where you can go out there and one guy can out-talent everybody. That's not it. Look at Indiana. They're talented, but they're not more talented than Ohio State. They're not more talented than these teams that are beaten to death. It's that culture. It's that togetherness. It's that program-defining characteristic that helps you and makes that difference on fourth and one, and Auburn just didn't have that. They were too busy worrying about whether everybody was just okay. Does everybody just be okay? You can't do that at this level."
Coleman could thrive in Austin, but that should make him no more missed in Auburn for how everything went down behind the scenes just to end up at his agent's alma mater.