Auburn Expected to Hire Coveted Head Coach: Report

By Michael Gallagher

Contributing Sports Writer

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Lost in the college football madness surrounding head coach Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss, LSU, and Florida, is the handful of other schools also looking for a new head coach.

Arkansas, Auburn, Penn State, UCLA, Stanford, and a few other schools are also looking for new HCs, and one of the hottest names for many of those jobs appears to have settled on where he wants to land.

At one point, Tulane’s Jon Sumrall was a betting favorite for both the LSU and Florida jobs. Despite seemingly being out of the running for both schools, it appears Sumrall is still destined for the SEC though, according to Steven Godfrey of the Washington Post.

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During a recent episode of the “Phantom Island” podcast, Godfrey revealed that Sumrall is expected to be named the next head coach at Auburn, which is searching for the successor to recently fired Hugh Freeze.

“Jon Sumrall's going to Auburn,” Godfrey confidently stated. “… As of right now, Jon Sumrall is going to Auburn. I've heard conflicting schedules on how Auburn would handle a Tulane playoff run. But yeah, if you're Auburn right now, you need to be cheering against Tulane (qualifying for the College Football Playoff).”

Sumrall’s star has been on the rise for a while. His 23-4 record at Troy landed him at Tulane, where he’s gone 40-11 in two seasons.

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The Green Wave are currently ranked No. 24 in the College Football Playoff rankings, and wins over Temple and Charlotte and an AAC championship could launch Tulane into the CFP picture and complicate a potential Sumrall-to-Auburn transition.

Godfrey also pointed out one other big hurdle that could throw a wrench into Auburn’s plan.

“Sumrall's going, and the other thing that you [don’t] want as an Auburn fan—I'm not saying it's going to come down to this, because I do think conversations have progressed to a point where plans are being made—but you don't want Ole Miss to come crashing in at the last second and saying like, ‘All right, we just lost Lane (Kiffin) to Florida. Let's try and get an offer out to Jon ASAP,’” Godfrey stated.

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