Auburn football coaching search tracker, updates on candidates to replace Hugh Freeze
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AUBURN — John Cohen called it self-induced, but the pressure surrounding Auburn football‘s latest head-coaching search is very much real and has been building for a half-decade.
In 2020, Auburn fired Gus Malzahn after a winning season against an SEC-only schedule. The notion was it could do better, and the answer for improvement was Bryan Harsin. He lasted less than two years. Then came Hugh Freeze, who somehow underwhelmed further and was fired Sunday, Nov. 2, midway through Year 3 on the Plains.
Since Malzhan’s ousting, Auburn’s sniffed the postseason just twice. It holds the SEC’s third-worst conference winning percentage, and it’s currently staring down the barrel of a fifth consecutive losing season — which hasn’t happened since the middle of the 20th century.
Those are a handful of the disheartening links in a chain of events that has Auburn at the crossroads of an identity crisis. Its reputation as a program where fresh hires win big and fast has failed to maintain. Cohen, Auburn’s athletic director, will pick a coach who arrives with the course of the program’s future teetering on its axis.
But hey, no pressure, right?
As Auburn’s search ensure, follow us here for reports and updates on the Tigers’ top candidates.
ESPN analyst calls Auburn football job ‘goldmine waiting to happen’
Nov. 4: ESPN analyst Peter Burns doesn’t think it’s LSU or Florida at the top of the SEC’s heap of openings. He said it’s Auburn.
“People will say, ‘Well, LSU, that’s a crown jewel.’ I get it,” Burns said. “But the reason why Auburn is in a great spot right now is because Hugh Freeze was hired.”
“I put Auburn right now, as far as the four in the SEC, I actually put them at the top of the heap.”
–@PeterBurnsESPN on how desirable the Auburn football head coaching position ranks 📈 pic.twitter.com/qNnXqHP30H
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 4, 2025
Burns said Freeze’s hire brought alignment to Auburn, between boosters and powerbrokers alike, giving it something Arkansas, Florida and LSU don’t have.
“Great fanbase, great facilities, and more importantly, they haven’t had a whole heck of a lot of success lately,” Burns said. “This is an absolute goldmine waiting to happen.”
Auburn football interim DJ Durkin will ‘absolutely’ be considered for job
Nov. 3: Durkin will “absolutely” be considered for Auburn’s full-time job, Cohen said, adding that he’s earned that opportunity. He will be part of a pool that we consider.”
A long-time coordinator, Durkin has been trending toward a return to head coaching. When Durkin came to Auburn, it was his third consecutive job as an SEC defensive coordinator and fourth in total, but he has only been hired as a head coach once.
Maryland signed Durkin in 2015, but following the death of a player ahead of the 2018 season, he was placed on administrative leave. Allegations of a toxic culture within his program ensued, and on Oct. 31, 2018, he was fired.
AD John Cohen offers timeline for Auburn football’s search
Nov. 3: Between downplaying meddling boosters and making his elevator pitch for the Auburn opening, Cohen said the program hopes to have a new head coach in place soon after its Iron Bowl season finale on Nov. 29.
He also indicated what Auburn’s pool of candidates will look like.
“Are candidates that you’re talking to still playing at that time? What are they playing for? Are they in the CFP? Are they in a bowl?” he said. “I would assume that every single candidate that we talk to outside of this building is going to be in that situation.”
Surely it’s not so sweeping, but the entire candidate pool is actively coaching, that means the likes of the unemployed — be it James Franklin, Jimbo Fisher or Jon Gruden — wouldn’t be on the list.
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football coaching search tracker, latest reports on candidates
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