After Auburn lost 10-3 to a Kentucky team that was on a 10-game SEC losing streak, it was obvious head coach Hugh Freeze’s time with the Tigers was over. He was just in his third season, but the program was foundering, with a 6-16 mark in SEC play. The offensive-minded head coach’s teams had been held to 17 points or less in 11 of those 22 games.
Whether the job is considered on the level of the LSU and Florida vacancies or stacks up closer to Arkansas depends on who you ask. Gene Chizik did win a national title at Auburn within the last 20 years, but this program hasn’t won more than six games in a season since 2019. And it has often been very volatile, even by SEC standards.
The Tigers should have some good options, but the candidate pool feels like a mixed bag between Group of 6 upstarts and retreads. Last time, Auburn pursued Lane Kiffin before Freeze ended up with the job. We doubt Kiffin will be in play this time around. If he gets tempted to leave Oxford now, maybe it’s for Florida or LSU, but not this one. However, there is one sitting Power 4 coach we could see the Tigers pursuing hard.
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham was Auburn’s offensive coordinator in 2019, the Tigers’ last good season. The 35-year-old has been fantastic at his alma mater, taking the Sun Devils into the College Football Playoff in Year 2 and then almost knocking off Texas in the Peach Bowl quarterfinal. Arizona State finished 11-3 and No. 7. The Sun Devils are off to a 6-3 start this season and just beat Iowa State in Ames despite losing their standout quarterback Sam Leavitt for the season with a foot injury. Dillingham is one of the most energetic and creative coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision, but would he leave his home for this job, especially when he has an easier path to the Playoff in the Big 12 than he would in the SEC?
Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall seems like another very attractive option here. The 43-year-old former SEC linebacker, an Alabama native, has coached in the conference at Kentucky and Ole Miss and did very well within the state in his first head coaching job at Troy, in the state. He’s 38-11 as a head coach and has the presence and authenticity that Freeze seems to lack.
The list of other G6 head coaches we think will be in play starts with Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield, a 45-year-old former NFL offensive line coach who keeps piling up wins, going 29-6 the past three years. Memphis could be a Playoff team this year, which could muck up the timing if Auburn really wants him.
South Florida coach Alex Golesh, formerly Tennessee’s offensive coordinator, took over a hapless program and got it going. The Bulls, who are 6-2 with a blowout win against Boise State and road win over Florida, also have legit CFP hopes this season. Golesh, we hear, also is drawing a lot of interest from Oklahoma State, where he spent a season as a grad assistant under Mike Gundy.
Southern Miss coach Charles Huff, a 42-year-old former Alabama assistant, did a very good job at Marshall, where he had a 10-3 season and won the Sun Belt championship last year. In his debut season at Southern Miss, which had won a total of four games over the previous two years, he has the Golden Eagles 6-2 and in contention for a Sun Belt title.
There are two wild cards in this search. Former Penn State coach James Franklin is a top target for the Virginia Tech vacancy, but Franklin might be more intrigued by this job. Before his 12 years in Happy Valley, he worked wonders in three seasons in the SEC at Vanderbilt. This year was a nightmare at Penn State, and he was fired after losing consecutive games against Oregon, a dismal UCLA team and then Northwestern at home, but Franklin knows how to win. He led the Nittany Lions to five AP top-10 finishes.
The other intriguing option is former Texas A&M and Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, who is now doing TV work for the ACC Network. He took the Seminoles to a national title following the 2013 season and led the Aggies to a No. 4 finish in 2020. He did get paid a boatload of money to leave College Station in 2023 after things really fizzled out there, but his 45-25 record was a lot better than anything the Tigers have been doing of late. It’s worth noting things also fell apart for him in Tallahassee late in his tenure. The 60-year-old played college football in-state at Samford, where he also started his coaching career, and he spent six seasons at Auburn as quarterbacks coach. If Fisher really wants back into coaching and Auburn is game, this might be very tempting for him.
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