Make an AI retreat from the player while facing them?

Beginner Questions
#1

I’m trying to create a simple AI where upon spotting the player in a field of view would turn to face them and back away while maintaining a flee path. I’ve modified the flee path so that the AI only makes a new flee path when the player gets too close, but I can’t seem to figure out how to keep the AI facing the player, and make it move backwards basically. I tried altering the rotation of just the game model, but the AI really didn’t like that.

Here’s what I have so far that’s functional:
I’ve been stuck on this for 8 hours, someone please help.

public GameObject Eyes;

    public float lookSpeed = 50f;
    public float lookRadius = 100f;
    public float fleeRadius = 20f;
    public float maxFOVAngle = 60.0f;
    public Vector3 visionOffset;
    public int searchLength = 400;
    public float fleeStrength = 1;
    public int pathSpread = 4000;
    private GameObject player;
    public bool inSight = false;

    IAstarAI ai;

    void Start () {
        player = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("Player");
        ai = GetComponent<IAstarAI>();
    }

    void Update () {


        //-Sight Code- 
        Vector3 fovRadius = Eyes.gameObject.transform.forward * lookRadius;

        float targetAngle = Vector3.Angle(player.gameObject.transform.position - Eyes.gameObject.transform.position, fovRadius);

        //Distance between the player and the fleeing entity
        float distance = Vector3.Distance (transform.transform.position, player.transform.position);
        //If the angle from the player to the fleeing is within the field of view of the fleeing:
        if (targetAngle < maxFOVAngle)
        {
            RaycastHit hit;
            //Draw a Ray to the player. Is the player obstructed? If yes, the player is not in sight. If no, then the player is sighted.
            if (Physics.Raycast(Eyes.transform.position, player.transform.position - Eyes.transform.position + visionOffset, out hit, lookRadius))
            {
                if (hit.collider.CompareTag("Player"))
                {
                    inSight = true;
                }
                else
                {
                    inSight = false;
                }
            }
        }

        //-Movement and Reactions-
        Vector3 thePointToFleeFrom = player.transform.position;

        if(inSight)
        {
            ai.canSearch = false;
            Debug.DrawRay(Eyes.transform.position, player.transform.position - Eyes.transform.position + visionOffset, Color.red);
            ai.rotation = Quaternion.RotateTowards(ai.rotation, Quaternion.LookRotation(-transform.forward), Time.time * (lookSpeed / 100));
            FleePath path = FleePath.Construct (transform.position, thePointToFleeFrom, searchLength);

            path.aimStrength = fleeStrength;

            path.spread = pathSpread;
            
            if (!ai.pathPending && (distance < fleeRadius || !ai.hasPath))  
            {
                ai.SetPath(path);
                ai.canSearch = true;
            }
        }
        if(!inSight)
        {
            Debug.Log("Out of sight");
        }

    }