Everything John Cohen said about the Auburn coaching search
Auburn's AD will be a one-man committee in the search to replace Hugh Freeze. Here's what we know about the early stages.
AUBURN — Until the very end of his time as Auburn’s head coach, Hugh Freeze asked for fans to be “patient” and said his team was “close.”
The man who hired and fired him, athletic director John Cohen, used those exact same words Monday — but in the complete opposite way.
“The reality is, it’s no longer time to be patient,” Cohen said. “It’s time to act. It’s time for us to make a jump. It’s time for Auburn to make a jump. Our fans deserve that, and I want that to happen as quickly as possible.”
And, in case that wasn’t pointed enough of a message, he went a step further later.
“I’m not going to say that we’re close,” Cohen said. “Close doesn’t matter. Getting it done matters.”
On Monday afternoon, Cohen stood behind the same podium and inside the same time slot that had been reserved for Freeze’s Monday press conferences.
He didn’t make any opening statement, opting to jump straight into questions about the coaching search that will play a large role in defining his tenure at Auburn.
Cohen sounded like an athletic director who knows he’s under that pressure. Auburn football is staring down the barrel of a fifth straight losing season, something that hasn’t happened in more than 70 years. He knows Auburn people deserve much more.
“We have incredible fans,” Cohen said. “We have fans who have shown patience. We have fans who have given in every way. … Now it’s time for us to give back. That’s one of the many reasons we had to make this decision. It’s time for this football program to give back to this fanbase. They deserve it.
“And I’m going to spend every minute of every day I’m awake trying to give our fans exactly what they deserve, which is the best. That’s the direction we’re going to go.”
Cohen took questions from media members for more than 20 minutes Monday afternoon. Here is everything we heard about the early stages of the search for Auburn football’s next head coach from the man at the center of it all: