He’s very butt and everyone knows it. Auburn’s football team head coach Bryan Harsin is Fired about nine months too late on Monday morning, the finale for a bad second season, the crown jewel of The Plains. Tigers’ biggest achievement in 2022 is Survive an average Missouri team that would have beaten them, had their American striker not had the extremely rare 26-yard miss and a run-in that certainly didn’t send football over the line in extra time. Quite a confidence builder, which turned out to be Harsin’s final win at Auburn.
Being the other Power Five Conference team in Alabama along with the Crimson Tide is the most frequently touched spot in college football. You are a fantastic show by any imagination in a football-crazed region in America. The Tigers have won the national championship more recently than 124 other FBS teams. Standards are higher because no one will hesitate to disqualify you if you can’t fit. AU paid Gus Malzahn $21.5 million to leave at the end of 2020, bringing in Harsin. And 22 months later, it owes his replacement Malzahn, who was not even named in the press release announcing his dismissal, $15.3 million. Don’t pretend it’s a small amount, but don’t believe that Auburn boosters can’t be willing to pay it easily. Because football conquers all, and how dare Earth allow the Tigers to be anything less than great?
Coincidentally, Auburn hired John Cohen as the new sporting director within hours of firing Harsin. His tenure at AU will be tied to any new head coach as permanent. If the next football coach is not as successful as as horrible as Harsin, Cohen should also be kicked to the curb. The most important decision an athletic director makes is Cohen’s first – one that rarely happens, but will give Auburn immediate feedback on the type of division Cohen wants to run. And he has a choice: Make a big splash. Poaching a great trainer from a Team of Five is unquestionable. What exactly has that done to lift morale at other Southeast Conference schools? Florida is average with Billy Napier. Missouri didn’t do anything special with Eli Drinkwitz. Hiring a coordinator from another large school is taboo. Vanderbilt played with Clark Lea again. South Carolina was close but not yet groundbreaking with Shane Beamer. However, Auburn has more leverage to hire Brian Kelly-esque than most credits it to.
There aren’t many trainers available that fit the mold here. The hot panel with more than seven candidates is ridiculous. For me, I would pit one of the following three coaches hired at Auburn against the rest of the field: Deion Sanders, Lane Kiffin or Mike Gundy. A complete outsider with the most unique potential in the sport, the easy-to-spot candidate that can quickly lead to the most success, and Mike Gundy.
Strictly speaking, Gundy is the longest-serving coach in the Big 12 by a mile. He took the helm at Oklahoma State in 2005. Every other college has hired at least one new football coach since 2016. He’s 155-71 in Stillwater, won 11 flops and he is an alumnus earning $7.5 million per year. Gundy has also been at the center of controversy, as in 2020 when he was photographed wearing one One America News (OAN) shirt. The network’s election denial and contrived hoax are disgustingly untrue. Being tone deaf is not a curable offense and winning football can cure all in PowerFiveLand. Gundy would be an idiot if he didn’t follow Auburn’s outrageous suggestion. With Texas and Oklahoma jumping into the SEC, the path to the Big 12’s national championship becomes too narrow, Simone Biles will have a hard time with that balancing act.
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Cohen comes to Auburn after holding the same position at Mississippi State. Mike Leach won’t be considered when he’s not even the best FBS trainer in his state. Kiffin is and he has completed half of his third season at Ole Miss. He has never stayed in any gig for more than four seasons, meaning he is likely to leave Oxford this season or the next. Kiffin’s stay with the Rebels proves he can win the SEC for less than he would have at Auburn. He has recruiting connections on familiar paths and earns slightly less than Gundy at $7.25 million in 2022. Kiffin has signed a contract extension into the season into 2025. , but debugging is ongoing. The biggest obstacle for Auburn will be his acquisition, which is strangely unclear. It should be north of 20 million dollars. But how much is a win on The Plains worth?
Now we come to the main event and talk about Prime Time. He’s hugely inexperienced in college football coaching compared to the other two, only starting at Jackson State at the FCS level in 2020. Sanders has outplayed his weight during his tenure. in Mississippi. Remember how I said Kiffin was the best FBS coach in the state? That’s because I’m not sure the best college coach overall isn’t Deion. Remember how he eliminated the number 1 player in general, Travis Hunter, from leaving his alma mater to play in FCS? Blame NIL all you want. Sanders still convinced the young man to trade ACC for an FCS school. That was unthinkable two years ago. Someone will bite and hire him to Power-Five level in the next few years. He’s too hot to not hire and he not an HBCU loyalist like Dawson Odums. It is also possible to force Coach Prime, if he wants to be called, while he can force Hunter and his son, Shedeur Sanders, last year’s Jerry Rice Award winner, to go with him. to the SEC.
This is a not-to-be-missed hire for Cohen. Starting Auburn with a shrug would be worse than outrage. He needs to wake up the Tigers fan base with excitement. It was there, ready to explode like Mount Vesuvius. It wouldn’t be hard to do better than Harsin, who left his coaching post at Auburn when morale and hiring had become trash. The Plains is a most local treasure in college football, and it is recognized as such by its residents. Hire Sanders, Kiffin or Gundy and I think the chances of restoring the glory days of Auburn football skyrocket.
Your move, Mr. Cohen.
