Auburn hopped aboard this year’s edition of the coaching carousel on Monday by officially removing Bryan Harsin as head coach of the Tigers. Harsin was 9-12 in his second season at Auburn, with two of those losses coming against Penn State. With no shortage of potential candidates to become the next head coach of the program, could Auburn take a flyer on former Penn State head coach [autotag]Bill O’Brien[/autotag]?
O’Brien is currently the offensive coordinator for Alabama, a role that has established a solid track record of leading to head coaching opportunities under the leadership of head coach Nick Saban. And it would not shock anyone the day O’Brien gets a chance to be a head coach again.
O’Brien was the head coach of Penn State for two seasons prior to the hiring of [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag], and he deserves plenty of praise for guiding the program through what he had to deal with at the time he took on the job. His stint as a head coach of the NFL’s Houston Texans didn’t quite pan out the way he would have liked, of course, but O’Brien has the right mindset to be a hard-working, make no excuses head coach.
Auburn Wire explored an initial list of potential candidates to succeed Harsin at Auburn, and O’Brien was among the names on the list.
“This isn’t a name that will garner much positivity among some fans,” Auburn Wire notes. “But as a head coach Bill O’Brien has a pretty good resume, as a general manager not so much. He did a good job at Penn State before moving to the NFL. Perhaps attending Nick Saban’s school of wayward coaches has done him some good. At least a name to keep an eye on.”
O’Brien is no stranger to having his name thrown through the rumor mill, of course. Some have potentially linked O’Brien as a candidate for a handful of other openings currently out there including Nebraska and Colorado. Although, those specific options seem less and less likely.
Another candidate with Penn State ties also remains an intriguing possibility. [autotag]Matt Rhule[/autotag], most recently the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, is also on the market. But the Panthers are paying for Rhule to not do a darn thing so Rhule has the luxury of not feeling like he needs to rush right back into anything.
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