A relatively calm stretch of the coaching carousel was interrupted Monday with a surprise announcement of an unsurprising decision at Auburn.
Bryan Harsin's fate as Auburn coach had been sealed weeks ago, likely after the Tigers blew a 17-0 lead against LSU and lost 21-17 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Some would argue Harsin entered the season with no chance to return, even after surviving a university inquiry back in February.
He's gone officially now. Two days after the team's fourth straight loss -- and with new athletic director John Cohen about to be officially hired -- Auburn fired Harsin, not even mentioning his name in announcing the change. Auburn had seemed content to let Harsin dangle for a few more weeks, but university president Chris Roberts decided Monday it was time.
Auburn becomes the sixth Power 5 job to open this year. Cohen is an interesting choice to lead the department and the upcoming football search. He's the former baseball coach at Mississippi State, who has spent his entire administrative career with the school. He hired Mike Leach as the Bulldogs' football coach and is now in the market again.
Both Auburn and Georgia Tech needed ADs in place before truly diving into their coaching searches. The clock is now ticking on both with key decisions coming in the next six weeks.
With the Auburn vacancy, we now need to rerank the open Power 5 jobs below. We'll also put a percentage chance on each of the interim coaches getting hired full-time, plus all the latest coaching buzz.
More coaching carousel coverage:
Jump to ranking the open jobs
Jump to rating the interim coaches
