(Todd Van Emst/Auburn Athletics)

Bryan Harsin is out as Auburn’s head football coach after just 21 games. At three games under .500 for his tenure, Harsin didn’t even make it to his second Iron Bowl on the Plains. Now running backs coach and program legend Cadillac Williams will take the reins for the rest of the way on an interim basis.

As Auburn announced in the sudden press release that didn’t even mention Harsin by name, a search for a new head coach is already underway. New athletic director John Cohen has a big move to make at the very beginning of his time on the Plains, and it doesn’t seem like money is going to be an issue.

Time will tell how well this search goes, compared to the last one at Auburn — under completely different leadership — that ended with Harsin. There’s a real chance that the house-cleaning going on at Auburn can change the direction of the program moving forward.

The Tigers are historically one of the top 15 or so programs in college football, and this will be the first big hire the department makes in the era of the SEC’s massive new TV deal with ESPN. No matter what national talking heads or rival fans say, Auburn is still an appealing job. It might not get its top target or top few targets, but this is not as dire of a situation as some will make it out to be.

So, who will be the next head coach at Auburn? Harsin was fired less than 24 hours ago, and Cohen was officially announced as the new athletic director hours after that. Any hire is a month or so away. Candidates for the job will undoubtedly be focused on their current teams.

Everyone has their own versions of a hot list or candidates board, and there are a lot of great ones across the Auburn beat. This one is a little different, as we’ve separated names into three tiers — names you should hear about, names you will hear about and names you might hear about in relation to this search.

We’ll explain each group individually as we go along. This list could grow and evolve over time, so be sure to check back periodically throughout the search.

Should Hear About

These are the coaches that make the most sense for Auburn, when it comes to fit and rumored interest among people with influence on the Plains.