John Cohen, speaking for the first time since dismissing Hugh Freeze as Auburn's head coach on Sunday, made it extremely clear who will be choosing the next Tigers' coach: him.
“There is no question that I will take information from industry experts and people who really understand college football at a high level,” Cohen said. “We will go to people who have incredible data, and we will go to people who understand all four corners of the country in this incredible sport. But I am the committee. Even though I will listen and I will do as good of a job as I possibly can of taking in information, I will be the committee.”
It will be an important hire for the athletic director, who was the one who brought Freeze to the Plains as one of his very first moves after arriving from Mississippi State. The hire didn't work out, with Freeze leading Auburn to a 15-19 record, including 6-16 in SEC play and losing 11 games in the friendly confines of Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Add the fact that Bruce Pearl, who revived Auburn's basketball program and took it to heights never even thought of, retired this offseason and left his son, Steven, who has no head coaching experience, in charge, Cohen will need to hire the right guy to lead Auburn back to winning ways.
Cohen, who spent the majority of his life coaching baseball, laid out what he wants in a head coach.
“Somebody with an edge,” he said. “Somebody who is highly competitive. In my career, I’ve found that one or two things has to happen: The head coach of almost any sport has to either have a tremendous edge to them or they have to be surrounded by assistants who have an edge to them.
"There’s many different ways to define that. You can call it blue collar, you can call it hard-nosed, you can call it aggressive, you can all it all those things. That’s usually priority No. 1, to find that part.
“Then intelligence, strategic, forward thinking, all those things matter. At this level in college football you’re obviously going to have a track record of somebody in all these areas and you’re going to look into that track record with the utmost seriousness. And you’re looking for somebody who can lead a building. Lead a staff, lead 18-22, 23, 24-year olds and to compete in the best league in the country.”