Mailbag 228: How would you build the next Auburn football coach?
This week: The Alabama narrative, John Cohen, longer-shot candidates, how the offense should change, basketball rotations and holiday seasons
AUBURN — A few weeks ago, I referenced a mailbag I had written a year earlier to make a point about where Auburn football was at right now. The week after that, the mailbag had a reference to one that had been written four years earlier.
It’s a sign that some of what we discuss in these mailbags sticks around a long time. But last week was a sign that some of what we discuss becomes out of date in a day.
The lead topic last week was all the various angles of Auburn jumping into an already crowded coaching carousel: The pros, the cons and the neutral point of view.
I’m glad that I came down on the side of making a move if you feel like it’s necessary, because Hugh Freeze coached a 10-3 home loss to a Kentucky team that had lost 10 straight SEC games and then was fired in around 30 hours of that mailbag going up. I even went back and edited the headline after the fact.
So, here we are, after what feels like the longest single week between mailbags in Auburn Observer history. Auburn’s rock-bottom loss to Kentucky, Freeze’s firing, John Cohen’s press conference, DJ Durkin’s week of preparation as an interim head coach and Steven Pearl’s first two basketball games in charge have all happened since the last time we did this.
As you might expect, the bulk of the questions for this week’s mailbag — ones that were emailed in before I even made my usual social media callout — focus on what’s next for Auburn football. The Tigers won’t have Freeze’s replacement in place for several weeks, so it’s about to be a real “ride the wave” situation for Auburn fans.
In this mailbag, we talk about what to look for in the next head football coach at Auburn, a few potential candidates, several passionate takes about Cohen and some basketball.
It’s been a long week, and a trip to and from Vanderbilt today will only make it longer. but this is why we do this. And I wouldn’t want to do it any other way. Let’s go.
Can we put the “X has done well against Alabama” narrative to rest once and for all? It didn’t matter that Freeze had beaten Saban or that Jackson Arnold had lead Oklahoma to a victory. It is not about the outcome, but the process.
That being said, if you were on the interview committee, what elements of a coaches résumé are you looking at to focus on process-oriented elements and to not be distracted by outcome measures?
Also, if you were building a coach like a player in a video game, how would you prioritize the following elements?
Recruiter
Donor relations
History of winning
Coaching pedigree
Team Culture/Compliance
School/Conference Fit
Image management /good with media
Steve
I’ve said this a few times this week in the aftermath of Freeze’s firing: Auburn hired him because of what he had done almost a decade earlier at Ole Miss. The Liberty years had some weight, but not nearly as much as what happened back in the SEC.
Being able to beat Nick Saban and Alabama stood out, but it was always flawed to make that the top priority. If that was the case, Gus Malzahn shouldn’t have been fired by Auburn in the first place. Freeze had a history of pulling off upsets — specifically two over Alabama — but the only real one he got during his time at Auburn was Texas A&M in 2024. Like the offense, he didn’t deliver on that expectation.
I’m not sure Jackson Arnold beating a Saban-less Alabama last year made the ultimate difference in him being the transfer quarterback Auburn got. I think Freeze truly saw a fit in his offense and an opportunity to give a former highly touted recruit a reset surrounded by what was supposed to be better talent. Well, he now has two straight seasons of being the worst SEC starting quarterback in almost every major statistical category on two different teams. It’s a miss and a failure of Freeze’s offense.
But, yes, the process should matter more than the results when it comes to bringing people into a new team — whether it be coaches or quarterbacks. Every team and every game are different, especially in this transfer-heavy day and age.
Looking at a past result and hoping that it will translate at the new destination isn’t a smart strategy if it’s not backed up by looking at the process of how it got done. Freeze’s upsets had a strong element of luck to them, and Arnold’s win over Alabama was still a defense- and run-heavy result that featured just 11 passes for 68 yards.
If I’m looking to hire a head coach, I would like to see consistency and adaptability above all else. Does a coach’s team have a consistent style, mentality, demeanor, composure, things of that nature? And have those traits shown to work with different teams, whether it be multiple schools or multiple types of rosters? A good season or a good stretch in one place only goes so far. I would like to see DNA that carries over.
With that in mind, here’s my ranking of Steve’s list of attributes for coaches: