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I don’t care how this sounds.
Auburn shouldn’t give up 25 point leads. They shouldn’t be calling ridiculous plays in high-pressure situations (fourth down fade vs Penn State, flea-flicker vs Texas A&M, go routes into double-coverage on fourth down).
They should be making their 33-yard field goals. They should be running the ball with one of the best running backs in the country, especially when it comes to games where the offense is operating with its backup quarterback… on the road… at night.
I don’t know how to evaluate Bryan Harsin at this point. He started the year off decently well, beating the teams he should have, and then losing to the ones (Georgia specifically) he should have. In this November stretch, we have seen the Auburn offense take a major turn for the worse. The defense has not helped out much at all either. It’s not a talent issue because of the 6-2 record the Tigers held prior to their collapse. It’s the coaching.
Regardless of how I feel about Harsin, he’s here now and there’s nothing we can do about it. Hope and support are what Harsin needs over the course of these next couple of years, but if he’s putting together months like this, he may not get it.
Think about what Gus Malzahn was doing in his last year.
His offensive system was shot. The defense was slipping. The recruiting was having a subpar year. It felt like time to blow things up. And when the Tigers did, there were not a lot of expectations of Auburn following. Then Auburn started 6-2 and could have honestly been 7-1 if it wasn’t for the defensive gameplan and ridiculous fade call against Penn State.
That start proved three things in my opinion. First, there was still talent on the roster that was capable of understanding and operating offensive and defensive schemes well (top five in the SEC well) at the collegiate level (Malzahn’s philosophy was not respected by some, but at least it worked to some degree). So it wasn’t the talent that was bogging the team down. Second, had Auburn had their cupcake games, they would have been an 8-4 football team in 2020. Harsin is 3-5 in his non-cupcake games (3-4 if you take out Penn State). He’s probably going to be 3-6 after playing Alabama.
Third, the new staff was doing something right at some point this year. Was it the talent that was keeping them afloat? Were they keeping the players afloat, and now they aren’t scheming things well? Whatever the case may be, something has changed, and it’s not like Auburn’s competition over this slide has gotten more difficult (if Auburn beat No. 8 Ole Miss and No. 25 Arkansas, Auburn should have been more competitive against No. 14 Texas A&M, and they should have beaten unranked Mississippi State and unranked South Carolina).
Would Gus Malzahn have done the same or worse this season? Would Kevin Steele (yes, I know how Auburn fans feel about Steele now) have lost to Penn State? Would he have given up 40 unanswered to Mississippi State? Would Gus Malzahn have run Tank Bigsby more? How would things have gone with a different offensive coordinator this season (because Chad Morris was being let go regardless)?
Gus Malzahn would not have been at Auburn forever. The way he handled the quarterback position was going to kick him out at some point. However, I think Auburn pulled the plug on Malzahn too quickly. Look at the future.
Auburn is 12th in the SEC in recruiting rankings right now. Do not tell me the transfer portal will fill the gaps forever. You can’t stitch together a roster filled with players that either didn’t fit well with another school (regardless of what the player’s issue was) or players that were not talented enough to play at schools that are on Auburn’s playing field or higher (Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, etc.) because those are the teams your fanbase is expecting you to now either compete with or beat head-on. Just ask Mel Tucker about putting together a roster full of transfers. You might come up 49 points short against the big boys like he did.
So while it is early, recruiting is not looking good. It will probably get better, but again I go back to the point that it can’t merely get “better” if Harsin wants long-term success at Auburn. It has to be on Alabama, Georgia, and Texas A&M’s level or pretty close to it. Do you know why Gus Malzahn beat Alabama three times? He had the recruits to do it.
Looking further into the future, we see Texas and Oklahoma moving into the SEC. This makes recruiting more difficult for everybody, but that includes Auburn. An extra loss thrown into the schedule if the Tigers can’t get things right.
Again, it might be early, but Harsin has shown some tendencies that he is going to have to shake off if he wants to consistently win against opponents that have similar or better talent but are vulnerable schematically to what he can throw at them. Such as LSU, Arkansas, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Texas, Kentucky, and Texas A&M. I included several teams from the east because new scheduling with a 16-team SEC is going to provide more opportunities for Auburn to play these schools.
Harsin coaches like he’s still at Boise State. As if he’s playing as the less-talented, underdog Group of Five program. I hope he adapts to life in the SEC because if he can’t get recruiting going scheme and his ability to hold a locker room together may be all that he has.
I don’t knock Harsin’s year one hires in Mike Bobo and Derek Mason, he made the right move. He was trying to ease the shock of playing in the SEC by getting guys that knew the landscape. Now that Harsin has some experience under his belt, he can get some new coordinators that fit whatever style he wants to implement.
If Auburn is going to rebound from a deflating end to the 2021 season, they need to do a lot of things better, most of which Harsin admitted was on the coaching staff. It’s tough to see the trajectory of this program potentially go sour because of a firing that was made too quickly. I wonder if Malzahn would have been able to rebound from this slump quicker than this situation Auburn has now put itself in. Let’s just hope for the best now. War Eagle always.
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