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:
The pros of hiring Deion Sanders as the next Auburn football head coach
If some Twitter sleuths are correct, it appears as though Deion Sanders has already touched down on the Plains back on September 18 after the Penn State punishing. ‘Prime Time’ would be a spectacular head coaching option that would energize a fanbase that is suffering and simply wants to win recruiting wars against Nick Saban and Kirby Smart.
Sanders has done it, landing the No. 1 overall 2022 recruit, cornerback Travis Hunter, and the No. 6 receiver in the same cycle, Kevin Coleman. Already for the 2023 recruiting class, he has landed two 3-star receivers, including Robert Lockhart III from Langston Hughes in Fairburn, Georgia — the same high school top Tigers target QB Prentiss ‘Air’ Noland and current 2023 Auburn commit DB Terrance Love attend.
Not only would Sanders bring a proven pedigree of recruiting success to the Plains, but he’d also bring more media attention than the program has had since Cam Newton was under center.
The cons of hiring Deion Sanders as the next Auburn football head coach
That aforementioned media attention could cause unwanted headaches to a team that is already perennially under fire from the national pundits. Other than that, there are few reasons to object to ‘Prime Time’ making way to a storied program facing hard times since the start of the not-so-roaring-2020s besides his lack of SEC recruiting experience. Still, that didn’t stop him from bringing the No. 1 2022 recruit to the FCS, so that’s not something worth spending too much time harping on.
Sanders is the exciting option, but talking about him could lead to heartbreak for a fanbase that may need to drop the idea of T.V. spots pitting the two Iron Bowl coaches together along with the Aflac Duck.
The pros of hiring Hugh Freeze as the next Auburn football head coach
Hugh Freeze, unlike Deion Sanders, has gone through the rigors of an SEC season. He’s come away with a 10-win season, another at nine wins, and had three first-round picks in the 2016 NFL Draft from Ole Miss.
After being forced out of the program for issues that we’ll get to later, Freeze took a three-year hiatus before jumping back into the fray with a Liberty program that had been at the FBS level for just one season. In his second year, the Flames were a 10-win program that knocked off the undefeated Coastal Carolina and only lost to a North Carolina State Wolf Pack that finished the 2020 season ranked.
Freeze has proven to do more with less, having won a recruiting battle for Laremy Tunsil, Laquon Treadwell, and Robert Nkemdiche in 2013 over Nick Saban, who was leading a championship run at the time.
The cons of hiring Hugh Freeze as the next Auburn football head coach
So this is what we promised to get to later, and what is easily the biggest con of hiring Hugh Freeze as the next Auburn Tigers head coach: an NCAA-imposed investigation showed evidence that Ole Miss University employees and boosters arranged numerous “impermissible benefits” for players, such as car loans and cash — with at least one recruit even getting help on his college entrance exam. Freeze was even forced to resign after Ole Miss officials found a “pattern of personal misconduct” that was tipped off by a call made to an escort service by the former Rebels head coach.
Freeze has had a less impressive run recruiting at Liberty than Deion Sanders has had at Jackson State, so the possibility of mass disappointment should the current Flames head coach be chosen instead of ‘Prime Time’ is real.