It’s become almost as routine as Saturday kickoffs in the fall: another major college football program is looking for a new head coach. On Sunday, Auburn fired Hugh Freeze after a 10-3 loss to Kentucky, becoming the eighth Power 4 school to make a change this season — and the ninth with an open job.
But while Auburn is one of the few programs to win a national title this century, not everyone sees it as an elite destination. FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt, for one, doesn’t believe it’s among the premier jobs in the country.
“Auburn is one of those places that pulls the trigger often,” Klatt said on his podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show.” “I don’t think Auburn is a great job.”
With Freeze’s firing, Auburn will be on the hunt for its third head coach since the end of the 2020 season. The program took a turn in 2020, which was Gus Malzahn’s last year at the helm, going 6-5 that year. Since then, Auburn has posted four straight losing seasons, with Bryan Harsin getting fired eight games into his second season in 2022. Freeze went 15-19 in his Auburn tenure, including a 6-16 SEC record and a 4-5 mark this season.
Auburn fires Hugh Freeze, where do the Tigers stack up among HC openings? 🤔
Now, Auburn will have to compete with other high-profile programs in order to potentially land a top-level head coach. But Klatt doesn’t believe Auburn’s at the front of the line in the coaching carousel.
“If you look at it and you stack it up against the others — now we’ve got these [nine] jobs open: LSU, Penn State, Florida, Arkansas, UCLA, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech and Stanford. It’s not better than those top three, LSU, Penn State and Florida, in that order,” Klatt said. “It’s probably better than Arkansas. Probably? And then, better than UCLA, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech and Stanford. It’s right there. It’s probably the fourth or fifth-best job open in the current cycle of the [nine] open.”
Klatt previously said LSU would likely be the top head coaching opening this offseason following Brian Kelly’s firing due to its resources and recent success. Prior to Kelly’s firing, he had Penn State as his No. 1 vacancy because of the program support, athletic director, recent investments made into the program and its long history of success.
Brian Kelly’s firing seemingly made LSU the top head coach job available in college football. (Photo by Tyler Kaufman/Getty Images)
But there’s another reason why Klatt has those two schools ranked ahead of Auburn in his list of head coach vacancies.
“It’s not a great job if you’re not even the best, biggest or most important program in your own state. Sorry, not sorry,” Klatt said. “Auburn has a little brother complex. They just do. They’re not Alabama. It’s not even close. Yet, they want to be Alabama.
“So, they operate from a booster and program perspective as if their expectations are like Alabama. But you’re not Alabama. You’re not. I know they played for a championship against Florida State, but even the national championship they won, you guys had Cam Newton. You had Cam Newton, and I can’t think of another player in college football that almost single-handedly dragged his team to a title like Cam Newton.”
Auburn has played in the SEC Championship Game once in the last 11 seasons (not including 2025). The Tigers haven’t made the College Football Playoff and have finished the season ranked just four times since 2014.
Klatt didn’t name any potential targets for Auburn or suggest who might be the best fit. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin has already surfaced as a popular speculative candidate, though Auburn would likely have to battle LSU, Florida, and even Ole Miss itself to land him.
Previously, Klatt mentioned Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, USF’s Alex Golesh, Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea and former Penn State coach James Franklin as candidates for the Florida job — a group that could also represent the field Auburn ends up considering.
Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin has been a popular name on the coaching carousel already. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)
Still, no matter who Auburn hires to replace Freeze, Klatt sees them taking on a tough, uphill battle.
“The expectations at Auburn don’t line up with the reality of what Auburn is. That’s a program that’s not even the best program in their state, obviously.”
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