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Auburn Tigers

Paul Finebaum sees a clear favorite to be Auburn’s next football coach

Chris Wallace

By Chris Wallace

Published:

Auburn was blown out at home by Arkansas on Saturday, 41-27.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 3-5 on the season and they are now just 3-10 in their last 13 games dating back to last year.

At this point, Bryan Harsin’s seat at Auburn can’t get any hotter. In fact, many are surprised that he’s still employed by the school.

But most believe his termination is coming sooner than later, which of course has generated plenty of speculation about who might replace Harsin on The Plains.

It was a topic that ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum touched on with colleague Matt Barrie on Sunday during the network’s “Week 9 Recap” show on YouTube.

“Every time I look down at my phone there’s another ‘Harsin could go any minute’ (story),” Finebaum said. “(Auburn) is on the verge or they have already hired John Cohen as the athletic director. He’s coming over from Mississippi State. Why is that important? Well, they need an athletic director to technically hire the next coach.”

So who might that next coach be? Finebaum believes there’s one candidate who should be seen as the clear favorite.

“So Harsin is gone, whenever that is,” Finebaum said. “… He just did a miserable job. Hugh Freeze I think is going to be the coach to watch. (Lane Kiffin’s) name comes up, but I do think there’s a lot of interest for Hugh Freeze there.”

Freeze is currently the head coach at Liberty University and just signed a contract extension with the school. He is 33-12 overall in his 4th season with the Flames.

Of course, Freeze was previously the head coach at Ole Miss, where under his direction the school was cited for multiple recruiting violations, which ultimately led Freeze to step down.

Would that be an issue for Auburn? Finebaum doesn’t think so.

“One thing that Auburn boosters like about Hugh Freeze, and this may sound irrelevant to people around the country, but he has something in his back pocket that resonates in Alabama,” Finebaum said. “He’s beaten Nick Saban twice. … Not many people have beaten Nick Saban twice.”

You can see the entire segemt with Finebaum and Barrie in the video below:

Chris Wallace

"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."

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