Auburn’s Coaching Search May Be Coming To An End
Last Sunday after a victory over Mississippi State to finish the season 6-4, Auburn University dismissed their head coach Gus Mahlzahn. Rumors have been running wild all week as to who Auburn would hire, but nothing substantial happened. On Tuesday, that search seems comes have come to a surprising end.
According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Auburn and Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin are finalizing an agreement for Harsin to become the Tigers' head coach. Harsin, who finished with a record of 69-19 at Boise State, won 3 Mountain West titles in 7 seasons as head coach.
Initially, defensive coordinator and current interim head coach Kevin Steele was the Tigers' choice for head coach. However, Tigers fans were quick to disagree with that decision even going as far as making the Twitter hashtag, #StopSteele. Auburn will take on Northwestern in Vrbo Citrus Bowl on New Years Day with Steele leading the charge.
Auburn has met with several other coaches including Billy Napier who turned down the job to remain with Louisiana. Other notable rumors were Oregon's Mario Cristobal and Liberty's Hugh Freeze. After a 9 day roller-coaster ride, Auburn looks to bring in a proven head coach.
Harsin was supposed to make $1.85 million dollars this season, but due to Covid-19 Harsin took a pandemic-related pay cut. Harsin will attempt to take the Auburn program to a winning level and compete for an SEC Championship, something Auburn hasn't competed for since 2017.
Tide 100.9 will update this information as it becomes available.