Auburn football: 2 new names to track in head coaching search

After he spent less than two years on the Plains, the Auburn football program has officially parted ways with Bryan Harsin and a number of his support staff. Cadillac Williams has been historically named as the Tigers’ interim head coach to finish out the season, and the rest of the staffers shuffled around the fill the holes left by the other fired coaches.

Though fans have been pushing the agenda and throwing out names for weeks on end prior to Harsin’s firing, now that he’s out and a new athletic director has been hired in John Cohen, the official coaching search can begin in earnest.

The most popular names in the coaching search are undoubtedly Lane Kiffin and Deion Sanders. For Tiger fans, a big priority is recruiting because there was little recruiting success under Harsin, and both of the aforementioned coaches are proven to be strong recruiters. However, those are the splashy candidates, and this week two new names that aren’t quite as flashy have emerged.

According to Auburn Undercover, both Oregon head coach Dan Lanning and Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken are under consideration for the position. After a successful stint with Georgia as a coordinator, Lanning is clearly off to a hot start in Eugene, ironically enough with one Bo Nix as his quarterback. The Tigers will look into Lanning as someone with a strong offensive game plan and plenty of SEC experience.

Though Monken is far from being the leading candidate as of now, he will certainly receive consideration from the search committee on the Plains with experience in both the SEC and the NFL. He has spent the past three years in Athens with the Bulldogs.

The coaching search is far from over on the Plains, but it has been widely said that money will not be an object when it comes to the next Auburn football head coach, and that the school intends to hire someone who will put the program back on an upward trajectory.