WATCH: Joel Klatt makes case for Deion Sanders to be next Auburn football coach
Although Bryan Harsin is still the Auburn football coach at the moment, many believe that will change by the end of this season. Tension between Harsin and Auburn leadership has been thoroughly reported on, and a poor on-field performance in 2022 has only exacerbated those issues.
As the speculation for who Harsin’s replacement will be begins, Jackson State coach Deion Sanders has been a name brought up often. FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt appeared on The Next Round Live on Monday, where he made the case for Sanders to become the next Tigers coach.
“When I look at Auburn, the only way to get to where they expect to be is to win some recruiting battles,” Klatt said. “Think of the coaches that they have got to compete with to win some of those recruiting battles. It’s gonna be very difficult. So to me, that’s the first and foremost criteria for your next coach at Auburn is, ‘Can you go into any living room in America and win recruiting battles?’ To me, that’s Deion Sanders. That’s why I think Deion’s gonna be the next coach at Auburn.”
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A two-time Super Bowl champion, Sanders has been the head coach at Jackson State for the past two seasons. He was named the Eddie Robinson FCS Coach of the Year in 2021 after leading the Tigers to a program-record 11 wins and their first conference championship since 2007.
To Klatt’s point, Sanders has also found massive success on the recruiting trail. He made waves this offseason by signing Travis Hunter, the No. 2 overall recruit in the 2022 class according to On3 Consensus. Jackson State also earned a commitment from four-star receiver Kevin Coleman, another top 100 player, and made several big additions through the transfer portal.
If Sanders can do all that at an FCS school, you can imagine the players he might convince to join Auburn as its head football coach. The Tigers will wait to see how things play out the rest of this season, but “Coach Prime” appears to be a prime candidate as soon as there is an opening.