Cole Cubelic decries 'obsession' over Auburn football departures
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AUBURN — Cole Cubelic had to change the topic, but it wasn’t enough to stave off a minutes-long rant about Cam Coleman, Deuce Knight and Auburn football fans in the dumps about the former five-star recruits’ exits from the Plains.
Cubelic, an offensive lineman for Auburn from 1996-2001, had plenty to say about the “obsession” with Coleman and Knight transferring from the program, taking eight minutes Tuesday, Jan. 13, on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, his radio show with former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy, to harp on the topic.
After insisting the conversation pivot from football to basketball during an interview with Andy Burcham, the voice of the Auburn Tigers, McElroy followed up on his co-host’s apparent frustration afterward, asking why Cubelic was so mad.
“Here’s what I need people to understand for a second, that this is not even just based on fans,” Cubelic said. “But this obsession with two individual players that have mildly proven themselves on the field has to stop. It has to stop.”
Coleman and Knight, both of whom signed with Auburn out of high school, are set to play for Texas and Ole Miss, respectively, in 2026. Coleman was the No. 2-rated signee in program history, and Knight the No. 15, but their seasons on the Plains amounted to a combined 10-14 record, with three SEC victories.
“No player cripples a program when they leave. Not a single one,” Cubelic continued. ” Not to the draft, not to the portal, not to Enterprise Rent-A-Car to start a career. None of them cripple a program when they leave. And if your mindset is of so, that is loser brain. That is a loser take. That is a loser mindset to think, ‘Oh, he’s leaving. We can’t win.’ You can’t think that way.”
Cubelic has been a college football media personality since 2009. He joined ESPN in 2011 as an analyst, and he currently works as a sideline reporter for the company’s football broadcasts.
Cole Cubelic’s full comments on Cam Coleman, Deuce Knight and Auburn football
“Here’s what I need people to understand for a second, that this is not even just based on fans, but this obsession with two individual players that have mildly proven themselves on the field has to stop. It has to stop. And this — again, without going into detail, I want to overemphasize that this frustration from me becomes well-beyond fans and observers of the program. I hope you folks can make sense of that, and understand that, because I will not give you further detail on it. But if you have common sense, I feel like you can probably figure that out.
“The obsession with attempting to build a team on two individuals that have had a limited time proving themselves, and had shown some clown tendencies in doing so, is beyond irresponsible, is beyond ignorant, and is just flat-out flawed for many reasons. I will also say, by doing this, it does not mean that I don’t think that either player is talented, could be great, has a chance to be good, has a chance to be incredible. But we’re talking about building a program. And to take any one individual or two and say that they have to be a part of things moving forward, or we’re going to build around these two moving forward, or these two have to be in place moving forward, or things fell apart when this player left, is irresponsible.
“And I’m going to go a step further. I’m going to say this: It’s ‘exploitive dumb,’ is what it is. To think, realistically, that you could take one of those two guys or the two together and that can be the foundation of your program moving forward is irresponsible at multiple levels. Does not mean they’re not good players. Doesn’t mean they can’t play. Doesn’t mean they can’t help. I’d love to have a lot of guys that could help the Auburn football team, but neither of those two are the guy to put the team on their back and carry them moving forward, mainly because the rest of the roster was not in a position to do that.
“I believe that when players put their team on their back and carry them, at least that’s the way some of us perceive it or look at it. Like, let’s use another Auburn example. Let’s use Cam Newton, because he’s the one that carried the team, right? And I stand by it right now: Most impressive individual college football season I’ve ever seen. Speaking of old, Greg, what did he have in front of him all year? Oh, guys who had played four and five years of college football. He had a tight end that had played a bunch of college football. You know what Emory Blake was not? First-round draft pick. You know what he had done? Played in a lot of football games. Kodi Burns didn’t really start as a receiver, But you know what he had been around a lot? College football. Knew it, understood it, had been around it. Now, he had a tailback that was young, new. But he had a couple others that were in the backfield at different points in time that had played a lot. So he had a lot of guys with a lot of wherewithal that had played a lot of college football. So they were in position to say, ‘Hey man, take it and run. We will help you.’
“There weren’t a lot of helpers on the Auburn football team this year. Some tried to be. I think the center tried to be. I think the right guard tried to be. Don’t think the left tackle really tried to be. I think the right tackle thought he was going to be able to and couldn’t. I don’t think any of the tight ends were in a position to really do that. I think there are some other receivers that could have been, and weren’t really given the right opportunities to do it, and by not being able to do so, their attitude dwindled down the season. And when the attitudes start to go down the drain, you think you’re going to be able to prop up other guys around you to be really good? No. But then you go out and you wear pink ski masks to be different from everybody else on the team. That’s the guy that’s going to take the reins and pull the program? We’re going to sit around and cry about a guy that’s got less than 100 catches in two years? We’re going to sit around and cry about a guy that’s played in one game?
“You’ve got to stop. You’ve got to stop. No player cripples a program when they leave. Not a single one; Not to the draft, not to the portal, not to Enterprise Rent-a-Car to start a career. None of them cripple a program when they leave. And if your mindset is of so, that is a loser brain. That is a loser take. That is a loser mindset to think, ‘Oh, he’s leaving. We can’t win.’ You can’t think that way, and this obsession with these two guys that they’ve propped up any portion of the program. What games did Auburn win because of two said players? I’ll wait. (McElroy: “Mercer”) Congratulations. What FBS games did Auburn win because of the two said players? Vanderbilt? When Cam Coleman went off with all the one-handed catches? Oh. Which one?
“I will preface this with, I think both players are very talented. I think both players may end up being awesome. But we are talking about this from a completely different perspective. Give me 20 Germie Bernards before one Cam Coleman. Sorry. I know that hurts people’s feelings. I know I’m probably really mean for saying that. You know what? I’ll go use another Auburn example. Give me 1,000 Courtney Taylors before one Cam Coleman. Hell, I’ll take Duke Williams before I’ll take him. That dude’ll stab you in the throat to catch a football. I don’t care. I want him on my team. It cannot be this ‘woe is me’ lifestyle, mentality of, ‘Oh, he went to this. How are we going to do that? Oh, we have to make sure we keep so-and-so around.’
“You are handcuffing your administration by doing this, by thinking this, by acting like this. And it has started from the top, and its got to stop. And there are new people in charge that will not think that way. Thankfully. Thankfully, there are new people in that facility that are not going to allow that mindset to be real. Alex Golesh will not live that life. I promise you. That ain’t him. I just, I can’t do it anymore. It’s over. You people are the people (who), 20 years later, wishing you would have married your high school sweetheart. And you’ve got a beautiful wife and four kids. ‘Oh, Jenny. She was the head cheerleader.’ And I don’t know, maybe I’m off-base. Maybe I’m mean. Maybe I’m in a bad mood. I don’t know. But tell me I’m wrong. It’s all I’m saying. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Cole Cubelic decries ‘obsession’ over Auburn football departures
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