Don’t look at Tulane and New Orleans, Auburn football fans

For Auburn football fans, there’s hopefully nothing to see in New Orleans right now, especially not at off Claiborne Avenue at Yulman Stadium. If you venture to the Uptown area of the city, you’ll stumble upon Tulane University and its new on-campus stadium, completed in 2014.

Under head coach Willie Fritz this year, the Green Wave is enjoying its best season in nearly a quarter century. Two weeks ago, the program reached the AP Top 25 for the first time since 1998 — the year that Shaun King led the Wave to an undefeated record and the No. 7 overall ranking.

Now that Auburn football has fired Bryan Harsin, will the Tigers look to an up-and-coming head coach like Tulane’s Willie Fritz?

Tulane’s 7-1 record has come at the expense of wins against ranked opponents on the road (such as Kansas State from the Big 12) and wins against fellow American Athletic foes like Memphis and Houston that have until recently dominated the Wave — both the Tigers and Cougars defeated Tulane in 10 consecutive meetings between 2002 and 2017.

This year’s Green Wave defense ranks among the nation’s top 20 units in terms of points allowed and yards allowed, and an experienced quarterback in Michael Pratt (when he’s healthy) leads an efficient offense.

These are heady days for Tulane, which has seen just three winning seasons in the previous two decades before 2022.

Meanwhile, things are nearing a crisis point at Auburn. There’s a new athletic director supposedly on the way, and saying football head coach Bryan Harsin spent the year as an “embattled” leader is putting it lightly. On Monday, Oct. 31, the Tigers made it official and axed Harsin less than two years into his six-year, $31.5 million contract.

He oversaw a program that suffered its first losing season in a decade in his first year at the helm in 2021. After a tumultuous offseason in which big-time boosters were trying to orchestrate a behind-the-scenes coup, Harsin stood firm at preseason media days and tried to put all the noise behind him and the Tigers.

Last year, Auburn ended the season on five-game losing streak.  Harsin’s second season with Auburn so far ended up worse than his first, with the team struggling in losses to LSU, Arkansas, and Ole Miss after the team’s worst home loss in a decade to Penn State earlier this fall. Harsin ends his tenure at Auburn with a 9-12 overall record and is now owed $15.5 million as a buyout — half of which apparently must be paid within 30 days.

Although the popular media buzz surrounds a candidate like Jackson State’s Deion Sanders and Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, Fritz’s results at Tulane speak for themselves: he has had only one losing season with the Wave in the past five years, which is remarkable for a program that had exactly one winning season in the 15 years between 2003 and 2017.

He’s had eight players get drafted since becoming Tulane’s head coach in 2015, and has led impressive Tulane rushing attacks and defensive units (especially in 2018 and 2019) while in New Orleans.

Before Tulane, Fritz had successful stints at FCS-level Sam Houston State and the Sun Belt’s Georgia Southern. He currently makes $1.9 million per year with the Green Wave, a far cry from his potential earnings at Auburn.

Tulane fans had better enjoy Fritz while his time lasts in the Crescent City. If Auburn decides to throw a lot of money at him the way they have done with former bosses Gus Malzahn and Harsin, Fritz might end up packing his bags for the Plains.