Auburn's entire hiring process never makes any sense to me at all anyway. They hit the jackpot with Pat Dye, I'll admit that. he created some strong defenses and tough teams, and in another time perhaps they win a national championship. Quite bluntly, they got robbed in 1983. But Dye at the time was the same kind of up and coming coach had some head coaching experience just not in the SEC.
Their hires since then with the conspicuous exception perhaps of Tommy Tubberville border on the ludicrous to absurd scale in my view. Terry Bowden was nothing but a name, I have always assumed that the Gene Chizik hire was because they assumed they could get him cheap and Saban was not going to be at Alabama very long since that had been his pattern up to that point in time. Gus got hired because he had given us a scare as the OC in 09 and they had to come back in 2010 which he got more credit than Gene did. Then, they let themselves get frightened into rehiring Gus and then fired him in favor of Mr. potato head, and then, OK, I can see hiring Hugh Freeze based on past on the field success, but given the circumstances that gave rise to that success, I just don't see how this is anything other than to make sure Saban doesn't get him as the OC, which it was no secret he wanted him.
I understand as I noted earlier that hiring a college football coach can be a crapshoot, and a guy who failed somewhere can do very well elsewhere and vice versa. But it seems to me that somebody with Auburn ties like Cadillac Williams might have been the better choice, not that I really want Auburn to hire a decent football coach anyway.