Auburn football: Analyst says leading HC candidate leaving current school ‘iffy’

At this point, the worst-case scenario for Auburn football fans would be to have the rug pulled out of them in terms of their head coaching search.

For weeks, there’s been a consensus that the Tigers would hire Lane Kiffin to be the next head coach — with the reasons centering on Ole Miss’ inability to match salary figures on his next contract and his unhappiness with the lack of fan support and resources.

High school, NFL, and college football analyst Mike Farrell thinks a potential worst-case scenario of Kiffin sticking around in Oxford, shunning the Plains, and providing online ammunition to Rebels fans to say ‘I told you so’ to Auburn football fans that were sold on the Ole Miss head coach making his way to AU.

Hugh Freeze Auburn football head coaching momentum has slowed considerably in the last week

College football is the ultimate ‘what have you done for me lately?’ sport. You can be the talk of the town halfway through the season — I’m looking at you Syracuse, Kansas, and Duke — only to fall out of the conversation completely by rivalry week.

Liberty, and by extension, Hugh Freeze, were Week 10 heroes after beating Arkansas in Fayetteville, but just lost to (an admittedly much improved) UCONN last week. Because of that, the Freeze to Auburn football momentum has considerably slowed as Lane Kiffin’s name continues to be the primary focus when it comes to the coaching search.

Freeze just signed a new deal that averages just under $5 million per year according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, bringing his Liberty salary to around $40 million. Given the progress the program has made under him, it’d be almost a shame to see Freeze leave Lynchburg for an Auburn football fanbase that could largely be disappointed if he ends up at AU instead of Kiffin.