I’m told this list is circulating among several longtime Auburn people. I don’t know where it originated, but it seems credible so I thought I’d share it. I don’t know if it’s the “actual” list but my impression is that people who matter have seen it. Save the TL
R. I'm just cutting and pasting what I was sent below.
When he’s separated from his employment at some point in 2022, Bryan Harsin will be the first Auburn coach in my lifetime not to (a) have an undefeated season, (b) play for a national championship, or (c) win a national championship. The last Auburn coach that didn’t hit at least one of those marks was hired in April 1975.
The talent problems didn’t begin with Harsin, but he made them exponentially worse. His signing classes are as bad as (worse than?) the worst classes any Auburn coach has signed during the Rivals Era (2002-present). Harsin’s three classes were rated 22, 18, and 51. For comparison: in 20 years, no previous Auburn class ranked lower than 21; by coach, the lowest rated non-transition classes were 21 (Tuberville ’04), 7 (Chizik ’11), and 14 (Malzahn ’17).
This failure has occurred when the SEC is getting more talented. The last time Auburn finished with a recruiting class ranked in the top 1/3 of the SEC was 2018. The results on the field bear out the failure to recruit anywhere near the historical average recruiting ranking of Auburn Football in the ten seasons before Harsin was hired (avg. class rank 9.7).
There was much more riding on who replaced Gus than there is on who replaces Harsin. We’ve hit the floor. It’s not going to get worse unless we start running a dirty program or signing criminals. Talent identification and acquisition are the most important tasks the next head coach will perform. It doesn’t matter if he’s a great in-game coach or executive—at those tasks, pretty good is now good enough. It matters more if whether the next coach can get players who are talented enough to give Auburn a chance to win. This especially includes the transfer portal, which is the quickest way the OL, DL, WR, and QB problems can get solved.
Tier One:
1. Luke Fickell. Buyout is $3.5M. He took Cincy to the College Football Playoff. The evidence says he is one of the 3 best coaches on this list. Since 2018 (giving him one year to clean up Tubs without dinging his record), he’s been the best in the AAC as a home fav, home dog, road fav, and road dog. His recruiting classes at Cincy have been top of his conference, and he’s got a top-20 class this year. Staff would be very important, but he’s not coming unless he has total control over every aspect of the program. Everything. But if there’s anyone on the list who I think is entitled to total control, it’s him.
2. Matt Rhule. Contingent on him getting fired by the Panthers, but they have lost 9 in a row so that’s coming. Temple (a terrible football job) was at the bottom of the AAC in recruiting before he got there and after he left, but while he was there they were in the top 2-4 in the league every year. He took Baylor from 1-11 the year before he got there to 11-1 in his last year. His classes were pretty good at Baylor versus the rest of the league, especially when you consider the mess they were in, their admissions requirements, etc. I think he’s shown he’s really good at recruiting, and he’s never been at a place it was as easy to recruit as Auburn is.
3. Deion Sanders. Coach Prime (a Class of ’20 graduate of Talladega College) will recruit better than almost everyone on this list. He’s got a dozen years of HS and college coaching experience, and he’s hired a staff at JSU that is better than what they would get otherwise. I think he’d be happy to come to a city where his team had literally every advantage.
4. Mark Stoops. Buyout is less than $2M. He’s a great evaluator and coach; he’s signed a higher-ranked class at Kentucky than Auburn has signed the past 2 seasons. He’s guaranteed to make the roster better and win more games. He’d probably love being at an Everything School after Cal pulled rank this summer. He’s done a good job working the portal to address weaknesses on his roster. If he comes to AU, Eddie Gran probably comes as GM of Football or something.
5. Hugh Freeze. So much baggage and hypocrisy. He’s the guy that gets ADs and university presidents fired, and I don’t think Pres. Roberts will want this to be his first major decision. But he would get as many portal players as he was allowed to take and he’d fix the talent level in 2 cycles. The background vetting on Freeze would need to be done by a former FBI agent, not a search firm.
Tier Two(a) (kinda in order):
1. Travaris Robinson, CB Alabama. Want to improve the talent level? T-Rob is one of the best recruiters in America. He’s an Auburn alum, he’s coached at Auburn, UGA, Bama, Miami, SCAR, and Florida. You’d have to get balls-out coordinators, but he can be a more reasonable approach to the Deion Sanders model. Immediately reopens the South Florida pipeline. He’s the guy people think Dell McGee is.
2. Lane Kiffin, HC Ole Miss. He’d increase the talent level and he knows how to work the portal, but there’s an obvious ceiling with him. Auburn would be better and more entertaining than the dreadful product we’re seeing right now. Having said that, he’s only finished in the Top 25 3x in 11 years as a head coach.
3. Mike Gundy, HC Oklahoma State. Better than what we’ve got and seems like he’s wanted to leave OkSt for a while now.
Tier Two(b) (listed separately because of money that makes them not worth it):
5. Josh Heupel, HC Tennessee. Buyout is $8M. You probably can’t steal him from UT, but he’s worth considering.
6. Mel Tucker, HC Michigan St. Buyout is only $2.5M, but he’s making $9.5M/year at Michigan State and off to a bad start. We would have to vastly overpay him to get him to Auburn, but he’s great at portal recruiting.
7. Dan Lanning, HC Oregon. Buyout is an astonishing $14M before 1/31/23. He knows how to recruit and he’s been at the two behemoths we’ve got to compete with. He’s doing pretty well at Oregon and Dilly is his OC. What’s not to love? (A lot. That’s what’s not to love.)
Tier Three (no order): Jeff Grimes (OC, Baylor), Brian Hartline (WR, Ohio State), Charles Huff (HC, Marshall), Rhett Lashlee (HC, SMU), Bill Clark (program resuscitator).
Tier Four (no order): Mike Macdonald (DC, Ravens), Mike Elko (HC, Duke), Jamey Chadwell (HC, Coastal Carolina), Jeff Monken (HC, Army), Mike Kafka (OC, Giants), Dell McGee (RB, UGA), Ken Dorsey (OC, Bills).
R. I'm just cutting and pasting what I was sent below. When he’s separated from his employment at some point in 2022, Bryan Harsin will be the first Auburn coach in my lifetime not to (a) have an undefeated season, (b) play for a national championship, or (c) win a national championship. The last Auburn coach that didn’t hit at least one of those marks was hired in April 1975.
The talent problems didn’t begin with Harsin, but he made them exponentially worse. His signing classes are as bad as (worse than?) the worst classes any Auburn coach has signed during the Rivals Era (2002-present). Harsin’s three classes were rated 22, 18, and 51. For comparison: in 20 years, no previous Auburn class ranked lower than 21; by coach, the lowest rated non-transition classes were 21 (Tuberville ’04), 7 (Chizik ’11), and 14 (Malzahn ’17).
This failure has occurred when the SEC is getting more talented. The last time Auburn finished with a recruiting class ranked in the top 1/3 of the SEC was 2018. The results on the field bear out the failure to recruit anywhere near the historical average recruiting ranking of Auburn Football in the ten seasons before Harsin was hired (avg. class rank 9.7).
There was much more riding on who replaced Gus than there is on who replaces Harsin. We’ve hit the floor. It’s not going to get worse unless we start running a dirty program or signing criminals. Talent identification and acquisition are the most important tasks the next head coach will perform. It doesn’t matter if he’s a great in-game coach or executive—at those tasks, pretty good is now good enough. It matters more if whether the next coach can get players who are talented enough to give Auburn a chance to win. This especially includes the transfer portal, which is the quickest way the OL, DL, WR, and QB problems can get solved.
Tier One:
1. Luke Fickell. Buyout is $3.5M. He took Cincy to the College Football Playoff. The evidence says he is one of the 3 best coaches on this list. Since 2018 (giving him one year to clean up Tubs without dinging his record), he’s been the best in the AAC as a home fav, home dog, road fav, and road dog. His recruiting classes at Cincy have been top of his conference, and he’s got a top-20 class this year. Staff would be very important, but he’s not coming unless he has total control over every aspect of the program. Everything. But if there’s anyone on the list who I think is entitled to total control, it’s him.
2. Matt Rhule. Contingent on him getting fired by the Panthers, but they have lost 9 in a row so that’s coming. Temple (a terrible football job) was at the bottom of the AAC in recruiting before he got there and after he left, but while he was there they were in the top 2-4 in the league every year. He took Baylor from 1-11 the year before he got there to 11-1 in his last year. His classes were pretty good at Baylor versus the rest of the league, especially when you consider the mess they were in, their admissions requirements, etc. I think he’s shown he’s really good at recruiting, and he’s never been at a place it was as easy to recruit as Auburn is.
3. Deion Sanders. Coach Prime (a Class of ’20 graduate of Talladega College) will recruit better than almost everyone on this list. He’s got a dozen years of HS and college coaching experience, and he’s hired a staff at JSU that is better than what they would get otherwise. I think he’d be happy to come to a city where his team had literally every advantage.
4. Mark Stoops. Buyout is less than $2M. He’s a great evaluator and coach; he’s signed a higher-ranked class at Kentucky than Auburn has signed the past 2 seasons. He’s guaranteed to make the roster better and win more games. He’d probably love being at an Everything School after Cal pulled rank this summer. He’s done a good job working the portal to address weaknesses on his roster. If he comes to AU, Eddie Gran probably comes as GM of Football or something.
5. Hugh Freeze. So much baggage and hypocrisy. He’s the guy that gets ADs and university presidents fired, and I don’t think Pres. Roberts will want this to be his first major decision. But he would get as many portal players as he was allowed to take and he’d fix the talent level in 2 cycles. The background vetting on Freeze would need to be done by a former FBI agent, not a search firm.
Tier Two(a) (kinda in order):
1. Travaris Robinson, CB Alabama. Want to improve the talent level? T-Rob is one of the best recruiters in America. He’s an Auburn alum, he’s coached at Auburn, UGA, Bama, Miami, SCAR, and Florida. You’d have to get balls-out coordinators, but he can be a more reasonable approach to the Deion Sanders model. Immediately reopens the South Florida pipeline. He’s the guy people think Dell McGee is.
2. Lane Kiffin, HC Ole Miss. He’d increase the talent level and he knows how to work the portal, but there’s an obvious ceiling with him. Auburn would be better and more entertaining than the dreadful product we’re seeing right now. Having said that, he’s only finished in the Top 25 3x in 11 years as a head coach.
3. Mike Gundy, HC Oklahoma State. Better than what we’ve got and seems like he’s wanted to leave OkSt for a while now.
Tier Two(b) (listed separately because of money that makes them not worth it):
5. Josh Heupel, HC Tennessee. Buyout is $8M. You probably can’t steal him from UT, but he’s worth considering.
6. Mel Tucker, HC Michigan St. Buyout is only $2.5M, but he’s making $9.5M/year at Michigan State and off to a bad start. We would have to vastly overpay him to get him to Auburn, but he’s great at portal recruiting.
7. Dan Lanning, HC Oregon. Buyout is an astonishing $14M before 1/31/23. He knows how to recruit and he’s been at the two behemoths we’ve got to compete with. He’s doing pretty well at Oregon and Dilly is his OC. What’s not to love? (A lot. That’s what’s not to love.)
Tier Three (no order): Jeff Grimes (OC, Baylor), Brian Hartline (WR, Ohio State), Charles Huff (HC, Marshall), Rhett Lashlee (HC, SMU), Bill Clark (program resuscitator).
Tier Four (no order): Mike Macdonald (DC, Ravens), Mike Elko (HC, Duke), Jamey Chadwell (HC, Coastal Carolina), Jeff Monken (HC, Army), Mike Kafka (OC, Giants), Dell McGee (RB, UGA), Ken Dorsey (OC, Bills).
