Analyst believes Auburn football would've kept best player from 2022 team if Deion Sanders was hired
Sporting News's Bill Bender gave Auburn football fans a painful visual: an alternate reality in which Deion Sanders was hired as the Tigers' head coach in November 2022 instead of Hugh Freeze. In that parallel universe, Tank Bigsby stays on board for a fourth season to play alongside Shedeur Sanders in Auburn's backfield facing defenses that are on edge having to cover Travis Hunter.
"Shedeur Sanders – who passed for 3,732 yards, 40 TDs and six interceptions at Jackson State – transfers to Auburn. Travis Hunter – the No. 1 player in the 2022 recruiting class who had the Tigers in his top five – follows Sanders from Jackson State," Bender wrote.
"Auburn brings more transfers in – including Shilo Sanders and South Florida receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. – but Sanders also is able to get a few pieces to stay. Bigsby is one of them, and Sanders also stabilizes a recruiting class that includes cornerback Kayin Lee and defensive tackle Keldric Faulk."
Bigsby flirted with the transfer portal in 2021 before sticking around with the Bryan Harsin-coached Tigers for a third and final season on the Plains. Coach Prime may have been enough of a pull to forego the 2023 NFL draft, where he was picked in the third round, to give it a go in a Shedeur-led offense.
Tank Bigsby would've become a star with Auburn football with Shedeur Sanders at QB
Bigsby had genuinely figured it out under Cadillac Williams during the final four games of the 2022 season. Had Williams been kept on as offensive coordinator under Coach Prime and not seen Philip Montgomery get the job over him, you can only imagine how Bigsby could've thrived with an elite QB and receiving corps opening the field up for him.
On the flipside, Shedeur has never had a running back in Bigsby's league in his two years at Colorado and two years at Jackson State. He may have had an even higher ceiling too.
Bender's vision is so beautiful, but so hurtful since it didn't happen.