The unofficially dubbed “Loveliest Village On The Plains” is yet again making wholesale moves aimed at trying to push beyond its more apropos moniker: The Most Dysfunctional Major College Athletics Program in America.
Auburn University on Monday formally hired a new athletics director, as it grabbed John Cohen away from Southeastern Conference Western Division rival Mississippi State, and parted with long-embattled football coach Bryan Harsin.
Though, in a microcosm of Auburn operations, the school’s announcement that it had moved on from Harsin – who’s owed almost $16 million in guaranteed buyout money – did not mention Harsin by name and said simply:
“Auburn University has decided to make a change in the leadership of the Auburn University football program. President (Christopher) Roberts made the decision after a thorough review and evaluation of all aspects of the football program. Auburn will begin an immediate search for a coach that will return the Auburn program to a place where it is consistently competing at the highest levels and representing the winning tradition that is Auburn football.”
The Tigers are only 12 years removed from their last national championship, when Cam Newton willed Gene Chizik-led Auburn to a 14-0 title season.
Two seasons later, Chizik was fired and Gus Malzahn was hired. All Malzahn did was play for the BCS title in his first year atop the program and then reach the SEC championship game again in 2017, only to be fired three seasons hence and with more than $20 million on his buyout.
In 687 days’ time, from Malzahn’s firing on the second Sunday in December 2020 to Harsin’s dismissal today, Auburn athletics has committed more than $37 million to fire two head football coaches.
Where does Auburn, led by Roberts and Cohen, now turn?
The job, despite the ongoing drama on the Plains, is widely regarded still as a good job where winning at a high level is attainable.
Multiple sources tell FootballScoop that Liberty coach Hugh Freeze, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin and Jackson State’s barnstorming Deion Sanders are top-level names to monitor in this search.
And expect Cohen to both listen to Auburn’s behind-the-scenes powerbrokers – an element key when the program moved on from Malzahn and also when things further fractured from the outset for then-athletics director Allen Greene and the initial hiring of Harsin – as well as have an eye for “a splashy hire that energizes the fan base” and “presents the potential to score a lot of points.”
Auburn was 12th in scoring offense in 2021 and ranked 13th, a full touchdown off last year’s pace, at 22.88 points per game through this season’s first two months.
Sources in the past two weeks have told FootballScoop that there is believed to be mutual interest between Kiffin and Auburn power-brokers.
Kiffin, in September, already appeared to speak without speaking on the potential Auburn vacancy, when Kiffin shared a story from the Clarion Ledger newspaper.
Lane Kiffin and Mark Stoops should rebuff Auburn football or Nebraska https://t.co/XGR7t9C9tc
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) September 27, 2022
Kiffin’s Ole Miss squad broke through earlier this month to give Kiffin as head coach his first win against the Tigers in four tries; he lost once to Auburn as Tennessee’s coach in 2009.
But what Kiffin has done for the muddling Rebels’ program has been undeniable and turned heads throughout college athletics. A year after leading Ole Miss to its first 10-win regular season in school history, the Rebels now sit 8-1 on the heels of their win at preseason top-10 Texas A&M last Saturday and host top-five Alabama Nov. 12 in what is widely expected to be a de facto SEC Western Division title game. Kiffin’s Rebels have scored a combined 69 points in two previous meetings against Kiffin’s former boss at Alabama, Nick Saban.
Ole Miss rewarded Kiffin with a significant raise and additional money for his assistant coaches' salary pool after last year's breakthrough-campaign; however, Kiffin's buyout should he choose to leave the school was not dramatically impacted whatsoever, per sources with knowledge of the agreement.
Freeze, of course, recently agreed to a contract extension with Liberty that could pay the former record-setting Ole Miss coach approximately $5 million per year to continue atop the Flames’ FBS program.
However, multiple sources with direct knowledge told FootballScoop both last week and again Monday that Freeze’s new pact at Liberty “would not preclude” Freeze was leaving for the right Power-5 opportunity. Per sources, Freeze – or his potential new employer – would owe Liberty less than $3 million should he leave after this season for a P-5 job.
Sanders could make sense on numerous levels for the Tigers, and no single individual – coach or player – is doing as much to elevate a program, shatter norms and prove he can recruit with any coach, any team, any program and anywhere than the bombastic Sanders.
His JSU program is the Football Championship Subdivision’s No. 5 team in the coaches’ poll, still unbeaten at 8-0 and now 19-2 in its last 21 games while just finishing up hosting ESPN’s ‘GameDay’ show for the first time in school and City of Jackson history.
Consider: Despite being hampered by only 63 available scholarships at the FCS level, Sanders has built a Jackson State roster stocked with some 25 players who either transferred into the program from a P-5 school or had a committable P-5 scholarship offer, such as former consensus five-star defensive back Travis Hunter, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Coach Prime’s son; wide receiver Kevin Coleman.
Sanders also already has multiple former SEC players on his JSU roster, including multiple players from Alabama, Ole Miss and Tennessee.
One final note on the potential of a Sanders-Auburn union: Sanders is among Under Armour's most prominent spokespersons and he has an extremely close working relationship with UA, which also is the apparel provider for Auburn athletics.
A pair of potential outlier names but coaches who continue to increase their brands and value are UCLA’s Chip Kelly and Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, an early frontrunner for national coach of the year for Heupel’s near-instant turnaround of the Volunteers’ dumpster fire he inherited in January 2021.
And a sidenote there, Heupel had emerged as a potential target for Auburn after it moved on from Malzahn, but the Tigers opted instead for Harsin, Tennessee athletics director Danny White turned to Heupel after his first couple candidates rebuffed the Vols and then Malzahn was hired at UCF to replace Heupel.
Still, one high-ranking college inside told FootballScoop Monday afternoon, “If I’m Josh Heupel’s agent, I would make a heavy run [to get Heupel involved at Auburn].”
Heupel was rewarded with a modified contract after he led the Vols to a 7-6 2021 season that culminated in the Music City Bowl, but Heupel’s new deal also kept him as among the SEC’s lowest-paid coaches.
Tennessee is fundraising at higher levels than it has seen in decades, and it is clear White will have to pay up to keep Heupel, whom CBS NFL analyst Tony Romo, a former Pro Bowl quarterback with the Dallas Cowboys, said Sunday during the Eagles-Steelers broadcast that “He (Heupel) will be on the radar for every NFL team. Just throwing that one out there for you.”
To which Romo broadcast partner Jim Nantz replied, “I’m looking at you, and I know you know something. OK.”
It's unclear per sources if fired Carolina Panthers coach Matt Rhule would be on Auburn's list, and while Rhule proved himself success at the college level at both Baylor and Temple, he does not right now seem at all to fit either Auburn's needs or the profile of the type of coaches Cohen is expected to pursue.
Auburn is almost certain to get a sitting and proven head coach in this search, and that’s the overwhelming indication for the tract that Cohen & Co. is expected to pursue. If the Tigers vet any offensive coordinators, expect those to be Alabama’s Bill O’Brien and Tennessee’s Alex Golesh.
Numerous college football sources tell FootballScoop that believe both the Crimson Tide and Vols’ offensive play-callers are on short lists to be head coaches sooner than later.