Joel Klatt compares Auburn to another SEC ‘popcorn program’
By Jacob Moss
Published:
SEC football is finally back, and every team from around the top conference in the sport will be in action this weekend in an absolutely loaded Week 1 slate.
The Auburn Tigers, in particular, will face the Baylor Bears in Atlanta as part of the 2026 Aflac Kickoff Classic in the first game of new head coach Alex Golesh‘s tenure.
Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt recently touched on the state of the Tigers’ program ahead of their Week 1 clash in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and he made an interesting comparison to another SEC team he views as a “popcorn program.”
“Auburn reminds me a lot of Texas A&M in that there’s not a ton of consistency, but the expectations are always that they’re going to be great,” Klatt said. “A&M fans have an over-inflated view of what they are, and I would just say the same is true for Auburn… They have not shown the consistency of other quality programs. They’re a popcorn program just like A&M. They’re an average program that pops up every once in a while.”
While the current state of the Aggies’ program may leave many in College Station scratching their heads at this comparison, there’s no denying that Auburn’s recent history on the gridiron is hard to view in any other light. The past 25 seasons for the Tigers have been characterized by unimaginable highs followed by long stretches of underperformance and mediocrity.
The first half of the 2020s illustrates this reality perfectly, as Golesh represents the fourth head coach to lead the program in the past 7 seasons. He may be the guy who finally rights the ship and gets Auburn back to consistently being a top program in the nation, but until that happens, Klatt’s analogy is right on the money.
