Auburn football: Pros and cons of Deion Sanders, Hugh Freeze as next head coach

After Missouri gave away their Week 4 matchup against Auburn football, the idea of Bryan Harsin finishing the season as head coach remains a tenuous outcome with the boosters circling like buzzards.

The Plains Tigers (and those that are just west of St. Louis) got zero traction in the second half of what became a defensive battle under the sweltering East Central Alabama sun on Saturday, September 17. Mizzou had a chance to win in the closing seconds of the second half before a missed 26-yarder sent AU’s SEC opener into overtime. Auburn’s record was mere inches away in Missouri’s first possession in the OT period from being 2-2, and in that case, it was heavily implied Harsin was set to be sent out the door and back on a one-way flight to Idaho. A fumble at the 1-yard line singlehandedly saved the Harsin era, full stop.

Things don’t get easier for the Boise native as he faces Brian Kelly’s surging LSU Tigers at home, the defending national champion, Georgia ‘Between the Hedges,’ and Lane Kiffin’s undefeated Ole Miss Rebels the next three weeks out in Oxford– the beginning of a brutal October that ends with Arkansas on what could be a spooky Halloween weekend.

Of course, Harsin could have his guys sailing into November at 6-2 again for all we know. In the more likely scenario the program fires him without cause before any key dates trigger more guaranteed money for Harsin, a second coaching search in three years will begin.

Already, Deion Sanders and Hugh Freeze have been floated as possible replacements for the job. Fly War Eagle breaks down the pros and cons of each becoming the next head coach of the Auburn football program: