Paul Finebaum takes aim at Auburn AD John Cohen for failing to hire Jon Sumrall
By Jacob Moss
Published:
The Florida Gators picked up their first big win of the Jon Sumrall era this past Saturday, traveling to Jordan-Hare Stadium at night and knocking off the Auburn Tigers in front of a capacity crowd.
Sumrall’s counterpart in this SEC clash, Alex Golesh, is also in his first season at the helm in Auburn, and this loss has put an early damper on his tenure, as the Tigers were widely considered to be home favorites and the better team from top to bottom leading up to kickoff.
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As it turns out, there was a point last fall where Sumrall looked like a lock to take the head job at Auburn instead of Florida, with many analysts and insiders considering the hire a done deal. For whatever reason, though, Tigers Athletic Director John Cohen backed off Sumrall and pivoted to Golesh instead, a move SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum criticized the AD for on Monday morning.
“I still like Alex Golesh a lot, but I blame John Cohen for this loss,” Finebaum said on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning show. “It was lost on Thanksgiving weekend in 2025 when John Cohen’s massive ego got in the way of hiring Jon Sumrall. It should have been done, he intended to do it, every Auburn fan was expecting it… That was my thought as that game came to an end, that an Athletic Director cost Auburn a football game.”
It’s impossible to know whether the Tigers would have won last Saturday’s game with Sumrall on the sidelines instead of Golesh, but there’s no denying the Gators were the better-coached team in the matchup.
If Golesh’s tenure at Auburn ultimately ends the same way Hugh Freeze and Bryan Harisn’s did, many could look back on Cohen’s failure to secure Sumrall as yet another disappointing failure from Auburn’s higher-ups.
