National Champion Head Coach Could be Solution To Auburn’s Woes

The former head coach with ties to Auburn could be solution to ending years of struggles on the Plains

Bringing Jimbo Fisher back to Auburn could be a solution to head coaching woes | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers fired head coach Hugh Freeze on Saturday after a 10-3 home loss to Kentucky. With the search for a new head coach underway on the Plains, On3’s Pete Nakos released his initial hot board for potential candidates to replace Freeze. 

Many of the candidates on the board are names that have been near the top of many coaching searches, including Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key, and Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea. However, the second name on the board is by far the most shocking to see: former Florida State and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher.

Fisher is currently working as an analyst for ACC Network, and last coached in 2023 as head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies. Fisher won a National Championship in 2013 with the Seminoles, defeating Auburn 34-31 in the final BCS National Championship Game.

Fisher has a career record of 128-48 as an FBS head coach, but struggled in his final seasons on the job, finishing 11-11 in his last two seasons in College Station. He also has worked at Auburn before, where he was the quarterbacks coach for the Tigers from 1993 to 1998 and coached Patrick Nix during his time on The Plains.

So, why would Auburn go after a coach like Fisher when younger candidates like Sumrall, Key, and Lea with more potential to develop and grow could be available? Well, Fisher offers a wealth of experience and a proven track record as a head coach at the top level of college football. He also offers a big name that Auburn Football could feel good about bringing into the program.

However, the list of positives with Fisher runs out quickly. In his last two seasons at Texas A&M, Fisher’s offense looked completely overmatched and stagnant. After three years of poor offense under a supposed quarterback guru and offensive mastermind in Hugh Freeze, Auburn would be extremely foolish to hire another coach built from the same mold whose offense experienced similar issues the last time it was on the national stage.

Furthermore, Fisher didn’t seem able to adapt well to the NIL and transfer portal era of college football. Texas A&M is not a program that lacks funding or resources, yet the Aggies consistently seemed to be outmatched in the SEC from a talent and execution standpoint. Additionally, players at A&M under Fisher seemed to always regress after transferring in rather than developing further.

Whether that is because of poor player evaluations in the portal or a lack of ability to develop properly by Fisher’s coaching staff, it isn’t a quality Auburn should want in its next coaching staff. Also, Fisher tended to blame most of his problems on his players rather than looking inward to try to fix things, and I don’t think Auburn wants its own Brian Kelly on The Plains.

So, though Fisher sits near the top of Nakos’s hot board, I think athletic director John Cohen and Auburn Football should not hire him under any circumstances. If leadership on The Plains truly wants to move the Tigers into the future, the way to do so is not by hiring someone from your distant past who hasn’t had any meaningful success at the FBS level since 2016 outside of the COVID season.