Add another SEC powerhouse to the list of open jobs on this year’s coaching carousel. After a dismal showing in a 10-3 loss to Kentucky, Auburn fired third-year head coach Hugh Freeze, paying his $15 million buyout, which pales in comparison to the $50 million that LSU and Penn State agreed to pay.
While it’s never good for there to be another big-time opening for coaching candidates to use as leverage or to choose over your job, the Auburn opening shouldn’t hinder the Nittany Lions from hiring the right replacement for James Franklin.
The worst-case scenario has already happened to Penn State since firing Franklin. LSU and Florida’s openings have made the job in Happy Valley fall to the third most enticing on the market and could lead the Nittany Lions to settle for a coach who isn’t athletic director Pat Kraft’s first choice. Auburn, though, shouldn’t jump ahead in line.
Penn State is still a better job than Auburn
The recruiting base in Alabama is more fertile than in Pennsylvania, but with Alabama there to gobble up much of the five-star talent, it’s essentially a wash. However, the Crimson Tide causes Auburn plenty of other issues that make the Nittany Lions significantly more appealing.
Not only is Auburn second-fiddle to the Tide, but Auburn has to play Alabama every year in the Iron Bowl. That’s not all. As the SEC debuted its yearly opponents for scheduling going forward this year, Auburn drew Alabama, Georgia, continuing the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, and Vanderbilt, which could become a force under head coach Clark Lea.
Penn State may find Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, and Indiana on its schedule, but not all in the same year. Next season, for example, Penn State avoids the Buckeyes, Ducks, and Hoosiers.
The path to the top of the conference is much clearer for Penn State in the Big Ten than it is for Auburn in the SEC. Both will have similar resources, and Auburn has won a national championship more recently, but the strength of the SEC, especially in Auburn’s own state, makes it a very difficult place to win; that’s before digging into the instability.
Auburn’s boosters are influential and strong-willed. Getting them to all row in the same direction has proven difficult for the program’s recent head coaches. In 2022, a powerful Auburn booster attempted a coup to remove Bryan Harsin as the program’s head coach, a tenure that was doomed from the start because of the lack of buy-in from the program’s deep-pocketed supporters.
Some of that is the reality of college football, but Auburn is a different level, especially when it’s possible that the fanbase's national championship expectations don’t exactly match the reality of Auburn’s situation.
Auburn is a good job, but it’s the third-best open job in the SEC, and won’t cut Penn State in line for its next head coach.