With Auburn head football coach Bryan Harsin's already hot seat getting hotter with each passing week, Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt predicted the Tigers' next coach would be a household name to go up against the likes of Nick Saban and Kirby Smart on the recruiting trail.
According to Klatt, Auburn will go after Jackson State head coach and former NFL and MLB star Deion "Prime Time" Sanders.
Harsin, who survived an internal coup to keep his job after a lackluster first season on The Plains, has the Tigers sitting at 3-1 on the season, with his only loss coming at the hands of Penn State in a 41-12 beatdown. His most recent game was a wild overtime finish in which Missouri running back Nathaniel Peat lost control of the ball right before scoring the would-be winning touchdown.
Klatt told Birmingham's "The Next Round" that Harsin "is not going to be there next year."
"Auburn clearly lost and still needs to bottom out," Klatt outlined. "I still think that you're going to probably get a Deion Sanders as a head coach. That's from miles away.
"When I look at Auburn — the only way to get to where they expect to be is to win some recruiting battles, and think of the coaches that they have got to compete with to win some of those recruiting battles. It's going to be very difficult. And so, to me, that's the first and foremost criteria for your next coach at Auburn is going to be can you go into any living room in America and win recruiting battles? And to me, that's Deion Sanders. So, that's why I think Deion is going to be the next coach at Auburn."
Klatt added that he had no "inside information" Sanders was in line to take the job but said it "makes sense."
Following an illustrious playing career, Sanders began his coaching career in the high school ranks and has led HBCU Jackson State to a 19-5 record since he took the job there in 2020.
In 2021, Sanders landed the top-rated high school recruit in the country. He has since gone on to land other highly rated players with offers from the country's top football programs.
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