Auburn football: Charles Barkley reveals who he wanted as head coach

AU legend Charles Barkley had an opinion of who he wanted to replace Bryan Harsin as Auburn football head coach, and it wasn’t the man they actually hired — that being former Liberty Flames head coach Hugh Freeze.

Barkley instead wanted AU to be ready for ‘Prime Time,’ but Bo Jackson himself openly questioned whether Auburn was ready for Deion Sanders. Evidently, they were not, opting for a man with SEC experience over Sanders.

Barkley confirmed to AL.com that he was supporting who ever was play-calling for Auburn football, but also revealed that he was hoping that the man they call ‘Prime Time’ would be the eventual Tigers hire:

"“I will always support who’s coaching at Auburn. I made no secret about it. I was hoping for (Jackson State head coach and former NFL star) Deion Sanders, but they went in a different direction.”"

Charles Barkley defended former Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin

Charles Barkley also told AL.com that it still doesn’t sit well with him how Bryan Harsin was treated during his less-than-two-year Auburn football head coaching stint. Barkley also called out those responsible for the inquiry into him in a biting criticism of their contradiction:

"“I think I said what I always said. I didn’t like the way Bryan Harsin was treated. They put him in a really awkward situation where he couldn’t be successful. Now, we have to get our stuff together to support the new coach 100 percent.”“One thing about being in the ‘Bible Belt,’ there’s a lot of people around here who think they’ve never made a mistake in their life. I never pay attention to that noise, and that’s what it is noise. Ain’t none of us perfect, but for some reason when you’re in the ‘Bible Belt,’ I saw a sign ‘don’t judge anyone.’ They judge everyone.”"

It’ll be interesting to see how Barkley will defend Hugh Freeze from the media slander he has already begun to face in his first week as Auburn football head coach.