{"id":64200,"date":"2025-11-29T05:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/64200\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T05:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:27:11","slug":"unexpected-favorite-emerges-for-auburn-job-after-jon-sumrall-florida-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/64200\/","title":{"rendered":"Unexpected Favorite Emerges for Auburn Job After Jon Sumrall-Florida Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Steven Godfrey of the Washington Post reported that Auburn was set to hire <\/a>Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall as the successor to recently fired Hugh Freeze.<\/p>\n

\u201cJon Sumrall’s going to Auburn,\u201d Godfrey stated. \u201c\u2026 As of right now, Jon Sumrall is going to Auburn. I’ve heard conflicting schedules on how Auburn would handle a Tulane playoff run. But yeah, if you’re Auburn right now, you need to be cheering against Tulane (qualifying for the College Football<\/a> Playoff).\u201d<\/p>\n

However, just days later, it appears that\u2019s far from a done deal \u2014 if it happens at all.<\/p>\n

Multiple reports indicated on Friday that Sumrall was the new favorite to take the vacant Florida<\/a> Gators head-coaching gig after it was revealed that Lane Kiffin had narrowed his decision down to Ole Miss and LSU.<\/p>\n

More News: $15 Million Head Coach Accepts Major SEC Job: Report<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tulane<\/p>\n

More News: Urban Meyer Recruiting \u2018Up-and-Coming\u2019 Head Coach to Florida: Report<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida is reportedly pulling out all the stops to entice Sumrall to come to Gainesville, and if he decides to take Florida up on its offer, that leaves Auburn scrambling to find a Plan B.<\/p>\n

While Missouri\u2019s Eli Drinkwitz and Vanderbilt\u2019s Clark Lea are no longer in play after signing contract extensions with their respective schools, there\u2019s still plenty of solid options still on the market including Georgia Tech\u2019s Brent Key, James Madison\u2019s Bob Chesney, former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, and former New York Giants HC Brian Daboll, among others.<\/p>\n

But a new, under-the-radar favorite appears to have emerged for the Auburn job if Sumrall is, indeed, off the table: Auburn defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin.<\/p>\n

More News: Former NFL Head Coach Gaining Momentum for Penn State Job<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Auburn<\/p>\n

More News: Coveted College Football Playoff Coach Sets Deadline to Decide Future<\/a><\/p>\n

Durkin\u2019s odds of landing the Auburn gig jumped to 28% by Friday night as Sumrall\u2019s odds dropped 23 percentage points. This isn\u2019t the first time Durkin\u2019s name has been mentioned in connection with the Auburn job either.<\/p>\n

Just two weeks ago, On3\u2019s Pete Nakos reported Durkin was a legitimate option<\/a> to get the permanent position.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother serious contender and name to know in the search is Auburn defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin,\u201d Nakos reported. \u201c\u2026 Sources have told On3 that Durkin has impressed in how he\u2019s handled the interim job and his defense all season.
\u201cMore important is the belief he could keep Auburn\u2019s recruiting class and roster together. The Tigers\u2019 2026 recruiting class is currently ranked No. 25 in the nation according to the Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, Steven Godfrey of the Washington Post reported that Auburn was set to hire Tulane head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19634,143,28,30,29,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-64200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-auburn","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-ncaa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}