Much is often made about the concept of consistency.
Consistency and continuity are important — it’s comfortable, after all, and having steady performance year in and year out is what often makes the best of programs in any sport. Getting to the point where you can have that in your program is a desire that every coach covets.
But first, you have to get to that point. Coach [autotag]Bryan Harsin[/autotag] shouldn’t feel comfortable right now, and the last thing he needs is to play it safe and go for continuity over risking potential. And if the reports that he likes [autotag]T.J. Finley[/autotag] to start at Auburn have any weight to them, he’d be making exactly the type of decision that is going to get him fired at the end of the year.
Harsin seems to like the continuity that Finley brings to the team, and he praised his ability to “operate” his offense during scrimmages. But experience means nothing when that experience didn’t produce good results, and the unfortunate fact of the matter is that Finley has failed to produce in starting scenarios across his career.
His injury in 2021 should be kept in mind, but even so, he’s never completed over 60 percent of passes in his career and had averaged less than a touchdown per game in both rushing and passing. He wasn’t much of a threat on the ground at LSU either, averaging just 1.2 yards per carry and only scoring a single touchdown.
Consistency is very important, but consistently poor play gets you nowhere, and Harsin has to abandon the idea of comfortable continuity to save his job. He needs to take a risk, and playing transfers Zach Calzada or Robby Ashford or four-star prospect Holden Geriner have a much higher potential to produce results than Finley would this year.
If Finley is named the starter, expect more of the same we’ve seen of him in the past two years and the Auburn offense to flounder without the production through the air it needs from its quarterback.
This season for Auburn football isn’t like any other, and Harsin needs to realize that to truly change his fate.
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