Auburn football head coach rumors: Could Gene Chizik replace Bryan Harsin?

The Auburn football program is currently in the middle of no man’s land.

It was barely over a year ago that the AU brain trust decided that the team was no longer benefitting from having Gus Malzahn roam the sideline and paid him $21 million to leave the Plains.

Now, after a 6-2 start of 2021 somehow morphed into a losing record over the season’s final months, Bryan Harsin could be paid another $18 million to vacate his post as Tigers head coach a year into what was a planned six-year tenure.

We’ve spoken at length around these parts about where various players aligned, with many standing in support of the HC and others taking shots at Harsin via social media.

Others have begun speculating as to who could replace the Boise native if he does indeed lose his job in the coming weeks.

Brandon Marcello of 247Sports mentioned a certain former head coach that happened to lead Auburn football to a championship in 2010 as a potential option for Harsin:

Former Auburn great Daren Bates certainly wasn’t a fan of the idea:

And neither are we.

Chizik had his time with the program and largely failed to deliver after the magical 2010 run. His 2012 effort was so poor at 3-9 that the trend of paying head coaches to leave Auburn began in earnest with the man chock full of ‘Words of Chizdom’.

Chizik isn’t unemployed at the moment, having been hired by UNC to be the Assistant Head Coach for Defense this offseason, but he’d certainly leave that unusual post if it meant coaching the Tigers oncemore.

That said, any season with Chizik on the sidelines that falls way short of 2010 would be met with many wondering why the AU brain trust insists on continuing to touch a hot stove knowing the burns that follow when doing so.