Auburn could have had Deion Sanders, but decided that Hugh Freeze was the way to go for them.
After a dreadful 27-10 loss at Texas A&M, War Eagle Nation has done seen enough, PAWL?! The Tigers fell to 3-1 on the season and 0-1 in SEC play with a massive rival in No. 1 Georgia coming down to The Plains next Saturday. Georgia is not Georgia right now, but Auburn is probably going to have a miserable time moving the sticks on Kirby Smart's defense next week. Oh, the regret is so much now.
The fine folks at Message Board Geniuses have captured Auburn fans losing their minds over athletic director John Cohen's decision to hire Freeze over Sanders. This could come back to haunt them big.
Blaming Freeze is not the real issue here, but rather the absolutely horrendous job his predecessor Bryan Harsin did as a recruiter in his year and change as Auburn's head coach. What a total disaster!
Auburn fans wish John Cohen hired Deion Sanders as Tigers head coach
Truth be told, we will never know if Sanders was the right candidate for the Auburn gig right now. Keep in mind he only got serious consideration as a Power Five head coach coming up from Jackson State from Cincinnati, Colorado and South Florida. He picked CU over UC and USF. The Buffs may lose their next few games in Pac-12 play, but Sanders has his boys playing so very hard for him over at Boulder.
I think it is foolish to punt on Freeze right now. We all saw him win prolifically at Arkansas State, Ole Miss and Liberty previously. He was one of the few head-coaching candidates out there who would theoretically instill fear in the minds of Nick Saban, Brian Kelly and Kirby Smart. In time, maybe Sanders can do that as well, but Freeze was a logical choice to make for this job, controversy aside.
Where I think Sanders could have done better than Freeze right away was his use of the transfer portal. He completely flipped the Colorado roster, transforming arguably the worst in the Power Five into something capable of being a top-25 program at times this season. It is not like Auburn was completely bereft of talent, but Sanders' cachet as a recruiter may have made the Tigers way better.
Give Freeze some time at Auburn, but only time will tell if the Cohen made the right decision here.
