Some Sunday thoughts on Auburn's coaching search

Here are a few quick thoughts on Auburn's coaching search.

Zac Blackerby | Nov 27, 2022

Some Sunday thoughts on Auburn's coaching search /

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The storyline as soon as Bryan Harsin was fired was the amount of time Auburn leadership had to get an early jump on setting up the path to acquiring their next coach shortly after the Iron bowl.

Obviously, December 5th is a crucial day for every team in the country. All players can enter the transfer portal and begin speaking with other schools. Auburn is a little different. Due to firing Harsin, players could enter the 30 days after his firing and get an early jump in the portal. We saw this with a few wide receivers. The most notable was Landen King, who has since pulled his name out of the portal. Ze'Van Capers and Tar'Varrish Dawson remain in the portal.

I still believe Auburn thought Lane Kiffin would be the next head coach. After the events of the past week, it seems all but certain that Kiffin is staying at Ole Miss.

Hugh Freeze's name then shot up but has cooled off since reports were thrown around Saturday morning.

I wanted to share two interesting notes from conversations I've had since then.

- A source close to Auburn's NIL collective On To Victory shared that they believed Hugh Freeze would be the best hire when it came to Auburn's NIL front. The source believed the Freeze would be the best at implementing it for future and current players.

- I was also speaking to someone familiar with the dynamics of the Auburn football locker room and culture. I asked them about what they thought of the new name that has appeared, Brian Johnson, the quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. He said, "If Auburn goes for someone like that with no head coaching experience instead of Caddy, the locker room would not respond well."

- I believe Luke Fickell was in talks with Auburn. I'm not sure how in-depth those conversations went but with him going to Wisconsin, it doesn't really matter.

I want to be clear, I'm just reporting a few conversations that could be interesting and valuable for Auburn fans as they wait for the news about Auburn's next head football coach. I'm not predicting Freeze, Carnell Williams, or Johnson to be the next man for the job.

I have no clue where they are planning to go at this point. Every person I speak to is saying different things. You have to think an announcement is coming soon.

Zac Blackerby is the publisher of Auburn Daily and Braves Today. He is also the host of Locked On Auburn and the College Channel Manager for the Locked On Podcast Network. Blackerby was previously the program director of the Auburn Network and hosted shows on ESPN 106.7 and WANI. He also used to be the editor for Auburn Wire and Fly War Eagle.

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