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Hiring James Franklin is the easiest decision any AD could make.

Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:21 am
Posted by TTsTowel
RIP Bow9den/Coastie
Member since Feb 2010
92604 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:21 am
John Cohen doesn't need to make this any harder than it is.

Fire Hugh Freeze, and hire James Franklin.

Bro won at Vandy and Penn State. He can win at Auburn. He's literally right there waiting for another job and he could be hired immediately, salvage the recruiting class, possibly retain a lot of talent, etc.
Posted by RandySavage
9 Time Natty Winner
Member since May 2012
34578 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:24 am to
I hate to say it because Im not a fan but it prob is the safest hire, could also get it done now for recruiting purposes
This post was edited on 10/19/25 at 9:26 am
Posted by AUCom96
Alabama
Member since May 2020
6561 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:27 am to
Maybe. And if he gets us to 7-8 wins while still losing to UGA, bama and any other SEC team with a pulse then we’ve gone from Dooley to Jones and are still treading water.
Posted by Auburntiger
BTR area
Member since Mar 2005
14423 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:29 am to
From a James Franklin perspective, why would he come to auburn?

With all the potential Big Time program job openings that could occur here very soon ( florida, Florida State Auburn, etc)

why should /would he pick Auburn over the others?
Posted by TTsTowel
RIP Bow9den/Coastie
Member since Feb 2010
92604 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:30 am to
quote:

Maybe. And if he gets us to 7-8 wins while still losing to UGA, bama and any other SEC team with a pulse then we’ve gone from Dooley to Jones and are still treading water.
James Franklin has only missed going to a bowl game 1 time. In his career.

He won 9 games at Vandy. TWICE.

He won 10 or more games at Penn State. 6 TIMES.
Posted by TTsTowel
RIP Bow9den/Coastie
Member since Feb 2010
92604 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:31 am to
quote:

With all the potential Big Time program job openings that could occur here very soon ( florida, Florida State Auburn, etc)
What makes Florida or Forida State more appealing than Auburn?
Posted by BigBlueAU
Opelika
Member since Jul 2013
1313 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:31 am to
I'm afraid that HF is the archetype of the coach Auburn powerbrokers want. Evangelical Christian, southern baptist type. JF may not get the support he needs. Plus his resume against the best teams is not impressive enough to make them give him full control.
Posted by Auburntiger
BTR area
Member since Mar 2005
14423 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:35 am to
quote:

why should /would he pick Auburn over the others?


quote:

What makes Florida or Forida State more appealing than Auburn?


I asked my question first! LOL j/k

I'm really Playing devil's advocate with my question, just looking at it from a different perspective.

The man will have his choice of jobs, and I think there's going to be a lot of them opening up. (Possibly even LSU)...

Posted by metafour
Member since Feb 2007
4213 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:37 am to
quote:

James Franklin has only missed going to a bowl game 1 time. In his career.

He won 9 games at Vandy. TWICE.

He won 10 or more games at Penn State. 6 TIMES.


So then how did he completely lose his extremely talented Penn State team (which started the season with a Top 5 ranking) in just 3 games?

If his past success is an indication of guaranteed future success (hint: its not) then why didn't he just correct course at the job he was just at after the loss to Oregon?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself. I've explained this a dozen times now: there are LOTS of coaches who were extremely successful for a long time who stopped being successful very quickly. And when they took new jobs, the magic was long gone.
Posted by LanierSpots
Sarasota, Florida
Member since Sep 2010
68835 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:38 am to
bro, he is 1-18 against ranked teams


Come on. Lets do better
Posted by metafour
Member since Feb 2007
4213 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:41 am to
Auburn fans are forever obsessed with this idea of rehabbing once-great coaches and are deathly afraid of the idea of just going out and finding the next great coach themselves.

Like I said, our fans are as bad if not worse than the boosters. Just this week we've had one guy on here claim it would be "interesting" to hire Muschamp, and someone else predictably brought up Dan Mullen. This is par for the course.
This post was edited on 10/19/25 at 9:42 am
Posted by jvilletiger25
jacksonville, fl
Member since Jan 2014
20027 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:44 am to
quote:

Just this week we've had one guy on here claim it would be "interesting" to hire Muschamp, and someone else predictably brought up Dan Mullen. This is par for the course.


So Kiffin is a no for you also? Because he was a failure at multiple stops before old piss.
Posted by TTsTowel
RIP Bow9den/Coastie
Member since Feb 2010
92604 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:47 am to
quote:

going out and finding the next great coach themselves.
Let's hear this great list of names.
Posted by metafour
Member since Feb 2007
4213 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:51 am to
quote:

So Kiffin is a no for you also? Because he was a failure at multiple stops before old piss.



Kiffin was extremely young when he became a HC and he was job-hopping which did not help him. He was not "failing". He became an NFL HC at age 32 which was absurd. Then he got the Tennessee job and immediately left after a 7-6 season to go to USC when he was still just 35 years old. He still put up a 10-win season at USC, but he was clearly too immature to handle the job.

This is completely different from pointing out some 50 year old grow-arse man who simply failed because he is a bad coach. Lane Kiffin had off-field problems as well.
Posted by wareagle7298
Birmingham
Member since Dec 2013
3527 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:52 am to
quote:

I'm afraid that HF is the archetype of the coach Auburn powerbrokers want. Evangelical Christian, southern baptist type


Huh?

Posted by WarEagleWes
Eastaboga
Member since Oct 2014
618 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 9:54 am to
We all know if Hugh gets canned they will hire Rhett Lashlee
Posted by BigBlueAU
Opelika
Member since Jul 2013
1313 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 10:02 am to
You see how that ended. They wont let that happen again.

HF is the only coach that all the powerbrokers lined up behind to give full support.
This post was edited on 10/19/25 at 10:03 am
Posted by metafour
Member since Feb 2007
4213 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 10:07 am to
quote:

Let's hear this great list of names.



I would have absolutely zero problem rolling the dice on Brian Hartline from Ohio State.

1) Young.
2) Has been part of the best program in the country currently for years now.
3) Has succeeded in every single facet of coaching so far. As a position coach? Nobody has been better than him in the country given what he has produced at WR. As a recruiter? He has been elite. Now he is also functioning as an elite OC as well with a first-year starter QB.

This is the type of hire that Auburn needs to roll the dice on at some point. Instead of trying to find the most recent 55 year old retread who just got shite-canned but has a nice resume from ~10 years ago. Like I said, if you think that Franklin is such a slam dunk to turn this shite-show around, then why didn't he just save his own job at Penn State?

There are several young, hungry coaches out there today who will go on to become elite coaches in the near future. It is time for Auburn to find this coach. Instead bozos like you want some other school to find and develop them for you, so that you can come on here every offseason posting about how we should hire them away once it becomes too late.

When we hired Freeze we had the entire fanbase talking about the "dream" hire of Lanning from Oregon (which was never going to happen). But what prevented us from hiring Lanning when he was still at Georgia? Instead Oregon rolled the dice and was rewarded for it. You snooze, you lose.

Before Lanning we had every possibility of taking the chance on Kirby Smart, and the fan-narrative at the time was that he was just running Saban's defense. Well, Georgia ultimately fired a highly successful coach (their own James Franklin ironically) and rolled that dice themselves, and were rewarded.
This post was edited on 10/19/25 at 10:17 am
Posted by AUCom96
Alabama
Member since May 2020
6561 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 10:08 am to
quote:

Let's hear this great list of names.



That's just it. There is no "great list of names".

We would need to do a thorough interview process and depend on our AD to hire a solid, hungry coach with a year to year plan... not a "well, in five years I can get the high school talent..." routine that's now defunct.

Freeze was a "name". He had 10 win seasons under his belt, too. All of that was sold to us and now he may go down as the worst Auburn coaching hire in nearly a century. Franklin has a good enough resume to demand a lot of money. He has enough question marks to ask whether he's worth that money, especially when he'll be trading the Big 10 for the SEC. Investment in this program will require getting over the hump against UGA and bama and Ole Miss and LSU, etc. It's not just 7-8 wins and a bowl game.

We're still looking for the "name" who can "beat Saban" when Saban is gone and names are no longer the guys necessarily doing the winning. Lanning wasn't a name. Ryan Day wasn't a name. Hell, we brushed Kirby Smart off ourselves. We have to run a professional AD to right this ship, not just throw money at the last past winner to get fired.
Posted by wareaglepete
Lumon Industries
Member since Dec 2012
17068 posts
Posted on 10/19/25 at 10:11 am to
quote:

Brian Hartline from Ohio State.


That’s a good one meta. I hope he is on the radar. Only issue is if he’s good, he’d hop right back to Ohio St if it opened up.
This post was edited on 10/19/25 at 10:16 am
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