Auburn football has seen its share of believable and, well, not believable candidates tossed into the running for its vacant head coaching position — created in the wake of Bryan Harsin’s October 31 firing.
Many see Carnell “Cadillac” Williams has done an admirable job filling in, leading the Tigers to a win over Texas A&M on November 12 on the Plains and willing AU to a 21-point comeback that fell short in overtime against Mississippi State on November 5 in Starkville. Still, his inexperience could set him up for an underwhelming recruiting cycle and a failure to reach expectations in the coming years in an increasingly competitive SEC West.
Cadillac would be an ideal offensive coordinator, but in terms of the next Auburn football head coach, the program will likely look to make a splashy hire to overcome the stigma of the past three seasons.
Could Clemson’s 2x national champion head coach Dabo Swinney be that splashy hire? Auburn Daily’s Lance Dawe revealed that his sources told him that Swinney and AU are currently in contact at the moment:
"“According to our sources (also confirmed by a few outlets, we are not the first to mention Swinney and Auburn), Dabo Swinney’s representatives have been having conversations with Auburn University since around last Saturday (Lance Taylor of The Next Round discussed similar things on Wednesday’s show).”“Note that this does not mean the Tigers are going to hire him, nor does it mean they are currently trying to hire him. All that has been said is that his representatives have been in conversations with Auburn.”"
Dabo Swinney will almost assuredly not be the next Auburn football head coach
Dabo Swinney to Auburn is not happening. Not now, at least.
Swinney has been the head coach of Clemson since 2009, and in that time, he has tripled their championship count while leading the Tigers to 11 consecutive double-digit win seasons — with a 12th on the way assuming they can take care of business against Miami and/or South Carolina to finish out the 2022 schedule.
He has unfinished business in Death Valley with Cade Clubnik looking like his next potential quarterback star in northwest South Carolina, and he has a legacy in Clemson he’s not likely to ditch for the AU job. If anything, Swinney could be biding his time before taking over for Nick Saban at his alma mater, Alabama.