Auburn football: AL.com endorses incumbent for head coach job

Auburn football has a leader in the locker room and on the sidelines who deserves to stick with the coaching staff one way or another.

Following a 41-17 drubbing of Western Kentucky during Week 12 that was a tie game at halftime, Carnell “Cadillac” Williams has solidified himself as, at the very least, a better head coach than Bryan Harsin ever was in Auburn. Williams will finish, at worst, .500 in his run as the Tigers HC after being unexpectedly thrust into the job on October 31 when the band-aid was pulled and the Harsin era was cut short after a 9-12 start rife with scandal, a loss of trust, and plenty of bad football being played on the Plains.

And while both wins of Williams’ tenure came against SEC West cellar-dweller Texas A&M and Group of Five WKU, the fashion in which the Tigers were able to rally in the second half in their latest win and during his debut against a high-powered Mississippi State offense proves that Cadillac is an inspirer of men — not to mention his offensive schemes have been brilliant in masking the weak offensive line play of the banged up front five.

Williams has been coaching so well that AL.com’s Joseph Goodman is convinced that he would be the right man for the HC job moving forward with questions constantly being thrown his way about whether or not he wants to be considered for the role:

"“Maybe Williams will have to go elsewhere if he wants to be a permanent head coach, but that’s not on Williams. I’ve head people say maybe Williams could do it in the future. Yeah, maybe so, but Williams is good enough to be Auburn’s permanent head football coach now, and he has proved beyond a doubt that he brings something to the table that no on other coach could. He’s not just a good fit for Auburn. Williams is Auburn. He is Alabama.”"

Auburn football must retain Carnell “Cadillac” Williams in some form

While Carnell “Cadillac” Williams has been as good as anyone could have expected him to be given the circumstances, there is a real danger of putting too much pressure on him by removing the interim tag and having him be the head coach moving forward.

Williams has built good-will for the job he has done on short notice, but the inexperience questions can grow heavy when conference play kicks in late September 2023 and things get more difficult than they have been the last two weeks. Cadillac doesn’t have the recruiting experience many of the top candidates possess, and with the way he has turned around this team, there could be unfair expectations that he’ll have the program fully turned around in all facets of the game.

It’s clear Williams belongs in a high-profile position on the Auburn football coaching staff, but his best role may be as the offensive coordinator under a proven commodity like Lane Kiffin or any other would-be surprise hiring at this point considering the narrative is fully backing Kiffin to AU.