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AD John Cohen defines three key metrics for evaluating Auburn football, Hugh Freeze

Justin Hokansonby: Justin Hokanson08/01/25_JHokanson
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Auburn AD John Cohen. Photo by Jake Crandall/USA Today images

AUBURN — There is no debate. This is a critically important season for Hugh Freeze and the Auburn football program.

Coming off two straight Top 10 recruiting classes, but just an 11-14 overall record and some head-scratching losses in Freeze’s first two seasons, there need to be clear signs of progress this fall.

Freeze is fully aware of this. He said at SEC Media Days this team can be “really good.” He also said, “I embrace expectations,” and went on to say he thinks this Auburn team is capable of being in the College Football Playoff discussion at some point this season.

As fall camp starts, Freeze again spoke with great optimism, saying he sees a team brimming with confidence.

That leads us to Director of Athletics John Cohen, who chatted on the radio with Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic on Friday morning to discuss a variety of things, including what criteria he uses to grade the job performance of the head football coach.

The question was, “what do you look at as your landmarks of success for a football team and a football coach?”

Here’s what Cohen said.

“There are three things that I think are critically important,” Cohen started.

“Number one, the coach, no matter what happens, has to still have the ear of the locker room. Number two, kids have to get better. You have to point to individual kids getting better. If individual kids get better, you’re going to have a better football team. And then, three, are you recruiting at a high level?

“Those are the three things that all coaches are judged on. That’s what I’m constantly evaluating.”

Auburn’s impressive recruiting efforts under Freeze are mentioned above. Having said that, Auburn currently sits at No. 55 in the 2026 Industry Team Rankings as August arrives. That is mostly due to do ever-changing guidance around NIL over the last few months and Auburn’s admittedly cautious approach. Other elite schools seem to be doing things differently. Freeze and Cohen outlined much of their thinking back on July 2.

As for individuals getting better, this season would seem to be a good time to make more complete evaluations on that topic. Team wise, there was regression record wise from Year One to Year Two. Year Three really needs to be different.

BetMGM places Auburn’s season win over/under at 7.5.

“Coach Freeze is evaluating his own program as well,” Cohen said. “Do we have the locker room? Are we developing players? Are we recruiting at a high level? If we do those things, then John Cohen can sleep at night.”

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