re: I wonder did Kirby turn down auburn?

Only there are confirmed reports otherwise, but I guess if tin foil hats are your thing

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Kirby wanted complete control and the ability to build his own staff from the ground up

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This is true. Not simply coaches, but player development personnel, recruiting coordinators, trainers, etc. AU has several people who have been in the Ath Dept for years and this would have meant a ton of people who are AU "lifers" losing their jobs. AU wasn't too keen on that.

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Auburn folks asked that he keep a couple of the assistants since they had multi-year deals or something like that

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Untrue. No assistant coaches on that staff are "must keeps" for any reason. Kirby could have (and Gus will) replaced any one on the coaching staff that he wanted to.

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He also said that Kirby wanted more money than what was offered.

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Was offered $2.3M. I think he would have taken $2.5M, and probably would have taken the $2.3M, but the true deal breakers (on both sides) were:

1)the desire to learn more about the NCAA investigaton b/c he wanted to know exactly what he was getting into (good, bad, or indifferent) and
2) the opportunity for full hiring/firing authority at every position in the football operations department - coaches, support, and otherwise.

The whole "I want to coach in the BCSNCG" was not a deal breaker for Kirby. It was a piece to negotiate. He would have given that up for more $$ and/or the two points listed above.

Both parties - mutually, i believe - chose to go in different directions. Kirby will get a raise and reassurances and AU will get an HC they are very familiar and comfortable with.

TL:DR

i imagine the look/see into the ncaa stuff was the sticking point