Coaching hires overwhelmingly end one of two ways: you get fired or you leave. Few get to ride into the sunset of retirement on their own volition after a long spell at the top of the game. But from the day Bryan Harsin took over at Auburn, the writing has been on the wall for how this would end. Now the inevitable is definitive and Harsin has been fired.
After Auburn’s loss against Arkansas this past Saturday, Harsin took longer than usual to hit the postgame podium (around 75 minutes). It raised some eyebrows among the assembled media—each previous loss was seemingly followed by 24 hours of waiting with bated breath to see if Harsin would keep his job, especially after losing to Ole Miss two weeks ago heading into a bye week.
But this past Sunday came and went, with Harsin still with the program and Auburn still without an athletic director since parting ways with Allen Greene in August. And that’s where the timeline here gets very interesting.
As Auburn worked its way through AD candidates over the past few weeks, there was a belief Harsin actually could coach out the rest of the regular season—if an AD was hired during the season, it would put them in a precarious spot to immediately fire the coach. But on Monday, Mississippi State announced AD John Cohen’s resignation followed minutes later by Auburn announcing its dismissal of Harsin in a terse statement that didn’t even refer to the former head coach by name.
There is no love lost from either side.
Then more shoes dropped, as Auburn also dismissed multiple assistants and announced former Tigers running back Carnell Williams would serve as interim coach. It’s an odd end to Harsin’s tenure, including him being fired on a Monday of a gameweek, a rarity in college football. A few hours later, Cohen was announced as Auburn’s AD in a move that sources indicated was coming while Auburn was losing to Arkansas on Saturday. The timing allowed president Chris Roberts to own Harsin’s firing publicly.
This chronology matters in what it could say about the next few weeks. The path is clear for Cohen to now conduct a coaching search as he sees fit. How clear it will be depends on if you read more into Auburn’s past than its present, because that past involves significant tumult.
Here are the obligatory mentions of the many booster coups at Auburn. First, the unsuccessful one that tried to oust Tommy Tuberville shortly before he went on to lead an undefeated season. Then, the successful movement to relieve Gus Malzahn of his duties followed by an unsuccessful attempt to install Kevin Steele as coach. The powers that be do love trying to throw their weight around at Auburn, even if it means a last-ditch effort to hire someone other than Cohen, for instance.
But that faction of boosters may be feeling a little less powerful after seeing two hiring cycles run through relatively normal and buttoned-up processes involving formal hiring committees and search firms. The result of one of those searches resulted in Harsin’s hiring. And while boosters made significant attempts to oust him dating back to February, Harsin notably made it through half of the 2022 season.
The question now is how clear the road will be for Cohen. He is known to be smart and thorough with an adeptness for hiring capable administrators around him, but an AD is not graded on hiring associate ADs—their tenures live and die with who they hire as a football coach. Cohen is not afraid to hire an outsider, which he did twice in Starkville with Joe Moorhead and Mike Leach. But Auburn is not Mississippi State.
Auburn will always be a football school, but for now, the most powerful coach on campus is men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl, who said in a statement: "John has won championships at the highest level both as a coach and as an administrator and knows how to win. Given his experience as a Southeastern Conference Athletic Director and knowing he's empowering Rich McGlynn [Auburn’s longtime head of NCAA compliance], this is the best of both worlds. I'm excited about our new leadership team. It's time for the Auburn family to come together as we move forward."
Auburn baseball coach Butch Thompson also worked with Cohen for years while they were both at Mississippi State.
Tumult is nothing new at Auburn, and the expectation is that you win despite it. And now, all eyes will be on Roberts and Cohen and how they navigate the ship as a new leadership team. Here is a look at the coaching candidates likely to be on their list in the coming weeks.
Thomas Graning/AP
Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss coach)
Kiffin, like Cohen, could be lured out of Mississippi by a school with more resources, especially around name, image and likeness, which he recently told Sports Illustrated is a crucial factor for any coach considering a new job. Auburn is working to become that type of place. Auburn is still in the midst of a secondary search for an associate AD and has $13 million in the bank to put toward NIL. Auburn will need all the ammo they can muster to try to take advantage of a golden 2023 recruiting class, although they will be playing significant catchup where that is concerned. Kiffin is a savvy navigator of the transfer portal, which is another consideration in trying to fill a gutted roster.
Would Kiffin leave Ole Miss? He has been considered in multiple coaching cycles now, but the expectations in Auburn are not the same as Oxford. If Kiffin wins two of his last three games, Ole Miss will have its second 10-win regular season in its history (the first came last season).
And another subplot: such a move would put him in even closer proximity to Alabama coach Nick Saban. His resources at Ole Miss don’t come with the expectation that he consistently challenge Saban and Bama, but at Auburn, he would be expected to beat Saban and Bama. Harsin got as close as he could when the Tigers went to overtime in last year’s Iron Bowl.
Hugh Freeze (Liberty coach)
Freeze agreed to a contract last week that extends through 2030, but contracts mean little-to-nothing in this business if the buyout is manageable, and Freeze’s is. Freeze is at least a bit familiar with the terrain on the plains (one of his daughters attended Auburn). His Flames are 7-1 and face Arkansas on Saturday. Freeze can point clearly to his new contract should he wish to honor it from a commitment perspective. There is also this connection to keep in mind—Cohen was an associate athletic director at Mississippi State during the tumultuous recruiting scandal involving Freeze and Ole Miss.
Matt Rhule (former Carolina Panthers, Temple, Baylor head coach)
Rhule has around $40 million reasons not to lift a finger for a long time, but that money isn’t a lump sum, so he’s not sitting on the warchest right now. Rhule would fit the bill of an outsider, which Cohen has a precedent of hiring. He would also likely bring an ability to fill his staff with coaches who may cover his perceived weakness as being a northerner coaching in the SEC. His eye in staffing assistants who are well-versed in the Texas high school ecosystem went a long way in his success at Baylor.
Jeff Grimes (Offensive coordinator, Baylor)
Grimes, a one-time assistant for Gus Malzahn and adept recruiter of talent in the trenches, is still thought of highly during his time at Auburn and could be an intriguing name to target. As would his boss, Dave Aranda, although Aranda might be reluctant to return to the SEC fishbowl.
Deion Sanders (Jackson State coach)
Those who have spent time around Sanders at Jackson State say he is an organized, CEO-style coach, something Auburn could certainly use. He could also put a newly minted Auburn NIL treasure trove to great use. He has explored Power 5 opportunities before. He is SWAC for now, but for how long?
