No Two Players Save Auburn
Cole Cubelic
McElroy shut me down when I asked the question on air: "What games did Auburn win because of these two guys?" And he immediately bursts out — "Mercer." And he was right. Deuce Knight went crazy against Mercer. Congratulations. That's not the win that I'm looking for on a consistent basis. I'd rather get a couple more against LSU, Bama, Georgia and Tennessee. So it didn't have a lot to do with those two individuals. You could have put any two names in there that were on an Auburn uniform last year and I would have said the exact same thing.
Context
Cole's caught-on-mic on-air frustration with Auburn fans (and parts of the administration) framing the Cam Coleman / Deuce Knight portal departures as program-ending. His argument runs through his own playing days — Auburn won the West with Rudi Johnson / Ben Leard / Ronnie Brown / Heath Evans / Alex Lincoln / Rob Pate as a team, not because of one star.
The implicit critique: Auburn has spent five years (arguably the worst stretch in program history) trying to single-skill-specialist its way out of trouble instead of building a foundation. Real wins are over LSU/Bama/Georgia/Tennessee — not Mercer.
Cole Cubelic
Like give me a Hines Ward or an Anquan Boldin. I'll build my damn program on those kinds of guys. When I hear a coach say, "I didn't need to make my guy a captain because he already does all those things" — that's the guy that maybe I'll make the foundation of my program.