The Auburn football program made a major change mid-season when they fired head coach Bryan Harsin, a move that many thought was long overdue. The newly-hired university president announced that the football program would be pursuing new leadership, and then shortly after hired John Cohen as the new athletic director.
Meanwhile, Cadillac Williams was named interim head coach, making history as the first Black head coach in Auburn football history. With several coordinators being sent out the door along with Harsin, the remaining staff members have moved around to fill in the gaps and there is a completely new energy surrounding the team.
Though the immediate priority for the Tigers is to somehow get to a bowl game at the end of the 2022 season, most of the attention is being paid to the coaching search going on behind the scenes. Fan favorites for the next head coach include Lane Kiffin and Deion Sanders, but who is really in the lead for the job as of now?
According to Justin Hokanson of Auburn Live, Lane Kiffin and Dan Lanning are emerging as top targets. Fly War Eagle noted yesterday that Dan Lanning was a new name to track in the coaching search, per Auburn Live, and as a coach that previously spent time in the south and specifically in the SEC, the move is considered to be a possibility.
Likewise, it seems the powers that be are highly interested in pulling Kiffin away from Ole Miss, but it could end up being tough. If Ole Miss beats Alabama next weekend, the Rebs will head to Atlanta for the first time if they can win out and LSU — owners of the head-to-head tiebreakers with Alabama and Ole Miss– loses one more game against Arkansas, UAB, and Texas A&M. That could complicate things for the Tigers.
It’s likely that we see a move to make a hire pretty quickly after the Iron Bowl at the end of the season, but until then, Coach Caddy and the team will still be battling it out on the field.