Sources - Auburn expected to retain head football coach Bryan Harsin after inquiry into program

Auburn University is expected to announce Friday that head football coach Bryan Harsin is returning after completing a university-directed inquiry into the program, ESPN has learned.

Harsin has been in limbo for the past eight days as news surfaced that the school has been scrutinizing the exodus of coaches and players that accompanied his rocky first season there.

Last Friday, outgoing school president Jay Gogue declared that the school was attempting to make an «appropriate decision» on Harsin's future. Harsin left last Thursday for a previously scheduled vacation and was out of the country until Wednesday. Gouge announced his retirement last June, and recently announced president Chris Roberts will take over for Gouge on May 16.

Sources told ESPN that Harsin met with officials running the school's inquiry on Wednesday night before attending the SEC head coaches meeting on Thursday in Birmingham, Alabama, at the league office. Harsin's meeting with school officials included speaking with Henry Gimenez, the lawyer specializing in the collegiate sports space from the Birmingham-based firm Lightfoot, Franklin and White. Sources have told ESPN that Gimenez has been a key part of the outside counsel assisting Auburn's inquiry.

After arriving at his vacation destination last Thursday, Harsin told ESPN late that night that he'd been given no direct indication from university officials his job was in danger after a report surfaced that his future was in question. Sources told ESPN that administrative officials, including executive vice president and chief operating officer Lt. Gen. Ron Burgess, had been conducting interviews with some of the people leaving the program.

At the root of the inquiry, sources said, was the overall