Auburn Football: Top 3 head coaching candidates to replace Gus Malzahn

3. Billy Napier

Napier is another obvious candidate for Auburn football and he’s a guy that’s going to be on the short list for just about any SEC school.

This is Napier’s third year as the head coach at Louisiana, he’s 27-11 and this year, the Rajun Cajuns are ranked 19th in the country, thanks to an early-season win over Iowa State and the team with another head-coaching candidate everyone loves — Matt Campbell.

You might wonder why Campbell didn’t make this list, but he doesn’t seem like a fit at Auburn and I felt that way about Luke Fickell too. Hugh Freeze could certainly become a candidate here if there aren’t forces working against him but I think he’s down the list a little.

Napier is a proven winner, he’s coached at Alabama, Clemson and won his division in the Sun Belt three consecutive seasons. He’s worked for Saban and that could help him understand how to compete against him.

Plus, he’s going to get scooped up sooner rather than later and if the other two guys say no, I wouldn’t hesitate to make an aggressive push for Napier too.