There has been much discussion as to who will become the new head coach for the Auburn Tigers after Bryan Harsin was fired earlier this week. College football insider Pete Thamel discussed Auburn’s future on ESPN College Gameday on Saturday, and listed former Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule as a potential candidate.
Thamel stated that Auburn plans on “big-game hunting” in their search for a new head coach, and that Rhule (seen above after an Oct. 9 Panthers’ game) is amongst the list of candidates that the team will be looking at. Rhule found a lot of success in college with the Temple Owls and Baylor Bears, but was let go earlier this season by the Panthers after they got off to a poor 1-4 start.
Some other big-name college coaches were also listed as potential candidates by Thamel. Those include Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops, and Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien.
Rhule was able to get an NFL coaching job thanks to what he pulled off in some difficult situations in college football. It would certainly be interesting to see him return back to the collegiate level, where he had far more success than in the NFL.
Auburn seems destined to bring in a big-name coach to turn around their poor performance as of late. There’s also been speculation that Jackson State Tigers head coach Deion Sanders could be a candidate for the job.
Whoever ends up taking the job will certainly have a big task of returning Auburn football back to prominence in the SEC.
The Tigers were just 3-5 on the season heading into Saturday’s road game at Mississippi State. And that comes after multiple years of mediocre play. So it will be interesting to see who they decide to bring in as their next head coach of the future, and if that next coach can turn this around.
[247 Sports; photo from Bob Donnan/USA Today Sports]
