Early signing day was different on The Plains this year.
It was Bryan Harsin’s first early signing day at Auburn and he was seen by many football fans sporting a sharp suit in several different social media clips throughout the day.
It looked cool. It stood out.
And unsurprisingly, Auburn’s production team knocked it out of the park with a consistent theme, cool shots of the signees, highlights, and a signing day logo. But that’s not the core of what Harsin wanted his players, recruits, and future targets to see.
He wants to change why players come to Auburn.
For the past decade, Auburn has preached family, being a part of something special, and becoming an Auburn man. Those things are important and I’m sure they come up when these coaches talk to players and their families. But there was one consistent theme in Auburn’s messaging this week.
The NFL draft.
In Auburn’s promotion and hype videos released before the start of the early signing window, the program posted a video highlighting several of the high picks that Auburn has had in recent years.
It showed Cam Newton, Carnell Williams, Derrick Brown, the Heisman legacy, and of course, the Auburn Creed.
But what stole the show on Wednesday for me were the optics of Harsin calling the signees and then walking up to a stage, behind a podium, while the NFL draft music played and announced their name like they were being drafted. A similar process that he hopes they get to experience in just a few seasons.
This doesn’t mean that the Auburn Family isn’t important and that it isn’t being sold but with the age of NIL, the core values of college football may be shifting. And that’s not good or bad. It’s just the way it is.
And while the landscape of college football is moving, it’s Harsin’s job to lead a program on the path that he wants to be on and he’s shown that if you aren’t with him, you will be left behind.
There are still people believing that he is an outsider at Auburn. It’s odd to me because he is showing things that match and lineup more with the words of the creed that Auburn fans hold so dear.
He teaches his players to count only on what they earn to get on the field.
He is constantly training and pushing the mind of his players.
He is demanding respect.
His message is not afraid.
And he’s demanding more hard work than what we have seen a coach do at Auburn since Pat Dye.
The culture is changing at Auburn. And we saw it on signing day.
He’s promising these kids a chance to relieve what they experienced on Wednesday. A chance to get a call from an NFL team and hear their name said from behind a podium.
I believe him. I think he can get them there.