The snooker coach was fired due to a lack of experience.

The snooker coach was fired due to a lack of experience.

AUBURN, Alabama — Auburn fired football coach Bryan Harsin after a troubled two-year tenure, making him the program’s shortest-tenured head coach in the last 93 years.

The university announced a “change in football leadership” on Monday. On Monday, John Cohen resigned as Mississippi State’s athletic director and is expected to be named Auburn’s new AD.

Following a 41-27 home loss to Arkansas, Auburn will launch a national search for the school’s 27th coach. Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, a former Auburn and NFL running back who has been a Tigers assistant for the previous four seasons, will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2022 season, the school announced.

Rich McGlynn, the interim athletics director, is publicly responsible for Harsin’s dismissal. McGlynn is in charge while Auburn searches for a replacement for Allen Greene, who resigned eight days before the start of the football season. Harsin’s hiring AD was Greene.

Harsin is owed a $15.97 million buyout, which is 70% of his remaining contract. Half of that must be paid within 30 days. The buyout cannot be offset by working at another school, so Harsin will receive the full amount owed to him by Auburn.

Harsin finished his time on the Plains with a record of 9-12, the fewest wins by an Auburn coach since Earl Brown’s 3-22-4 tenure from 1948-50. Before Harsin, five consecutive coaches and six of the previous seven either led Auburn to an undefeated season or won a national or conference championship − consistent success spanning 70 years. The only other coach during that time who did not accomplish either of those feats was Doug Barfield (1976-80).

The Harsin era will be remembered as one of Auburn football’s most disappointing chapters on the field and one of its most turbulent off the field. He arrived for his introductory news conference on Christmas Eve in 2020 after seven years leading his alma mater, Boise State, during which the Broncos went 69-19. Auburn was his third head coaching job and his first in a major conference.

He started 6-2 in 2021 before a five-game skid resulted in the Tigers’ first losing season since 2012. Auburn held a double-digit lead in three of those games and a fourth-quarter lead in four of them.