Put on your conspiracy hats for a second. You're Cohen. You've interviewed all the candidates and you like Brian Johnson the best but Lane Kiffin & Hugh Freeze are the anointed ones according to your fans and boosters. Kiffin didn't interview poorly either so you're likely to go with him. You do all the right things but Kiffin just never seems to come around. He then keeps tweeting...and tweeting..and losing...and tweeting. You stick it out but really you're just not impressed with the money you'd have to spend (keep in mind Kiffin kept saying unless something changes). I think quite honestly Cohen and Roberts didn't think he was worth the money to get him to leave (Jimbo contract). Now you have to figure out what to do with the Freeze question. You have big boosters that are pushing for him. You're a new AD trying to please both fans and boosters. You're not willing to hire him but you don't know how to get around that other than to try and come up with some reason why you can't. What do you do?
You leak his name. Of course, there's support. Of course, there are Auburn fans upset as...honestly, this is the most conservative fanbase in the country outside of the ones in Utah (forgetting the question of whether that is conservative or not). You then put out through channels that "my hands are tied". "The fanbase just doesn't accept him". This way you can present to your boosters that it wasn't your decision..or that you "had no choice". Ignoring the fact that you did...and Roberts did, who I think was also in on Cohen with this one.
Now you're out in the wilderness pursuing your own coach. You don't want a guy with no ties to the SEC (Deion & a lot of other coaches tbh). So who does that leave? Most of these guys have been gobbled up over the past few years by schools in the Big 10, Big 12, ACC, etc. You also don't want a guy who has failed before/old news (Muschamp, etc.) or to get embarrassed by another failed saga and you're now on a time crunch (Swinney, Franklin, etc.) So with that said it's probably going to be Johnson who I'm sure interviewed well and sounded rather intelligent having come from the NFL coaching circles and having SEC experience. He was a good recruiter at Florida (rated 5th best in the nation by ESPN in 2021). The Eagles have definitely taken off this season. This is kind of a diamond in the rough hire that is coming from left field but is not too far out of the realm of not fitting in the SEC (he coached at Florida & MSU under Mullen). Obviously, a risk as he's never been in the role of HC before but go big or go home I guess. I do think this was all planned after Lane skipped out to go this circumspect way (perhaps even Lane was a ploy to some extent, who knows?)
You leak his name. Of course, there's support. Of course, there are Auburn fans upset as...honestly, this is the most conservative fanbase in the country outside of the ones in Utah (forgetting the question of whether that is conservative or not). You then put out through channels that "my hands are tied". "The fanbase just doesn't accept him". This way you can present to your boosters that it wasn't your decision..or that you "had no choice". Ignoring the fact that you did...and Roberts did, who I think was also in on Cohen with this one.
Now you're out in the wilderness pursuing your own coach. You don't want a guy with no ties to the SEC (Deion & a lot of other coaches tbh). So who does that leave? Most of these guys have been gobbled up over the past few years by schools in the Big 10, Big 12, ACC, etc. You also don't want a guy who has failed before/old news (Muschamp, etc.) or to get embarrassed by another failed saga and you're now on a time crunch (Swinney, Franklin, etc.) So with that said it's probably going to be Johnson who I'm sure interviewed well and sounded rather intelligent having come from the NFL coaching circles and having SEC experience. He was a good recruiter at Florida (rated 5th best in the nation by ESPN in 2021). The Eagles have definitely taken off this season. This is kind of a diamond in the rough hire that is coming from left field but is not too far out of the realm of not fitting in the SEC (he coached at Florida & MSU under Mullen). Obviously, a risk as he's never been in the role of HC before but go big or go home I guess. I do think this was all planned after Lane skipped out to go this circumspect way (perhaps even Lane was a ploy to some extent, who knows?)
