Auburn football: Hugh Freeze and 5 replacements for Gus Malzahn as Tigers head coach
By John Buhler
Another Nick Saban disciple could be returning to the SEC
One Group of 5 head coach ready to make the leap to the Power 5 is Billy Napier of the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns. This is his third year in Lafayette and this is the greatest season of Ragin’ Cajuns football to date. They have a signature win on the season by stunning the Iowa State Cyclones in Ames in the non-conference. Louisiana has remained a fixture inside of the top 25 rankings.
Napier has won the Sun Belt West Division title all three years he has been at Louisiana. After a 7-7 campaign in 2018, the Ragin’ Cajuns went 11-3 last year. In 2020, they are 9-1 and will play the undefeated Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in the most significant Sun Belt Championship to date. The winner might get the coveted New Year’s Six bowl for all we know. Napier is ready for it.
Another interesting wrinkle here is prior to being named the Ragin’ Cajuns head coach, Napier had been Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama as his wide receivers coach. He is a promising branch on the Saban coaching tree and one who has already done remarkable things in the Sun Belt. So a leap to a Power 5 job as lucrative as Auburn would not be out of the question. He would succeed there.
While we should expect Napier to be a finalist to replace Malzahn at Auburn, he is not the favorite to take over down on The Plains. If he were to be named Malzahn’s successor, War Eagle Nation should view it as a success. However, Auburn does not fire Malzahn unless it knows for sure it can get its top choice to replace him. Unfortunately, that does not feel like it is Napier at this time.