Tag: hot seat

Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett deflects attention away from his job security

“I just want to do everything I can to help this team win,” Hackett said. “Whatever happens [to me] — those things I can’t control.”

The Denver Broncos are a mess, and much of the blame for the team’s poor season falls on first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett, who has appeared to be in over his head all year.

After a loss on Sunday dropped the team to 3-7, Hackett was asked about his job security. The coach deflected attention away from himself and instead wanted to focus on the team and turning the season around.

“For me, everything is about this team and this staff,” Hackett said Sunday. “I’ve told you guys that before. I just want to do everything I can to help this team win. We’ve been so close, we’ve had so many opportunities. We’ve had a lot of things happen this year that are unfortunate, but we have to continually find ways to win. That’s my sole purpose. That’s all I’m looking to do.

“Whatever happens [to me] — those things I can’t control. I always communicate with everybody, talk about everything, show them all the different things that are going on so that they can have all their questions answered and go from there.”

The fact that Hackett hasn’t been fired yet might suggest that Denver’s front office will wait to make a potential move until after the season. In the meantime, Hackett aims to keep the focus on the team.

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WATCH: Paul Finebaum caller suggest that Auburn hire former LSU coach Les Miles

This caller wants to see Les Miles back in the SEC.

LSU’s comeback win against Auburn on Saturday turned up the temperature on coach Bryan Harsin’s already hot seat.

The Tigers are more than four-touchdown underdogs against Georgia on the road this weekend, and a bad loss could spell the end of the Harsin era. Regardless of the timing, the odds Harsin survives his second season on the plains are slim to none.

When it comes to a potential replacement, one caller on The Paul Finebaum Show had a suggestion that was… interesting, to say the least. Edward from Selma, Alabama, thinks Auburn should hire none other than former national title-winning LSU head coach [autotag]Les Miles[/autotag].

https://twitter.com/FTBeard7/status/1577791147514003456?s=20&t=vdsoPKozZpziuP8z8fvWnw

Now, Finebaum callers are not exactly known for being rational or well-adjusted individuals, but this one is a bit out there. Not only did Miles turn in a disastrous 3-18 tenure in his last post at Kansas — a tough job but not an impossible one, as Lance Leipold is proving — but he has more than enough off-the-field baggage for him to be a non-starter as a candidate, especially at this level.

He’s also 68 years old.

Given the instability at Auburn and the rebuilding job a potential replacement for Harsin would face, I have a feeling this program plans to go in a different direction.

Sorry, Edward.

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‘The end is nearer’ for the Auburn head coach per Paul Finebaum

“I think it has become pretty obvious that Bryan Harsin can no longer lead this program” – Paul Finebaum

You knew it was only a matter of time before Paul Finebaum weighed in.

Finebaum joined ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ to discuss the future of the Auburn football program and head coach Bryan Harsin. It is no secret that the second-year head coach was on the hot seat, at least in the eyes of the national and local media. When your administration and Board of Trustees have a public investigation into your job performance, the writing is on the wall.

When he went on the radio on Monday in Birmingham, it was clear that Finebaum has no faith in Harsin surviving until the bye week, much less the end of the season.

“If the end was near last week the end is nearer this week,” Finebaum said on McElroy and Cubelic. “I really  have to anticipate it is either at the end of this week or the next because the frustration in the Auburn family is boiling over.”

The ESPN host discussed the “abysmal” performances against Power Five opponents, especially in the second half of games. “I think it has become pretty obvious that Bryan Harsin can no longer lead this program,” Finebaum said. When it came to a timetable, he basically said why wait to make a move and that they need to quit acting like this can be corrected under Harsin.

After five straight home games in which Auburn needed to go 5-0 or 4-1 at worst, they finished 3-2. “That tells you all you need to know when you consider the obvious.” Finebaum later stated, “why put off the inevitable and go ahead and do it.”

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Auburn-LSU coined as a ‘October Hot Seat’ game

Saturday makes list of “Hot Seat” games and all the pressure is on Bryan Harsin.

It feels like only a matter of time before another change is made at Auburn when discussing the head coach Bryan Harsin.

According to Andy Rittenberg of ESPN, Bryan Harsin is one of the six major coaches who could be next to join Scott Frost, Herm Edwards, and Geoff Collins. Ironically enough, two coaches with ties to Harsin are on the list. Eli Drinkwitz, who just lost to Harsin, made the cut as well as Harsin’s replacement at Boise State, Andy Avalos.

If Auburn had lost to Missouri, a game it led 14-0 after 12 minutes, Harsin might not have survived the weekend with his job. Thanks to Missouri’s overtime goal-line fumble, he gets at least another week on the Plains, but needs a strong showing Saturday against LSU. Industry sources continue to say interim athletic director Rich McGlynn is a strong candidate to land the permanent job, and could handle the Harsin firing and the initial part of a coaching search. Auburn’s defense played much better against Missouri than the week before against Penn State, but Harsin’s offense has scored more than 24 points just once in four games. – Rittenberg

It doesn’t seem like a fair shake for Harsin, who has only been on the job for 17 games and has compiled a record of 9-8. However, if you look at recent events you can see why there is a level of frustration. After starting out 6-2 in his first season, the team would finish 3-6 since that time. That includes the five-game losing streak to close out the 2021 season.

More now than ever, coaches aren’t given four or more years to right the ship. With changes in recruiting, NIL, and the transfer portal it has kicked up the pressure. Fair or not, that puts more emphasis on winning football games and recruiting. Two key reasons why Harsin has been linked to the hot seat dating back to the offseason. A 9-8 record and the No. 55 recruiting class (lowest at Auburn since 2004) are putting all the pressure to perform on this staff.

On Saturday we will find out if Harsin can fight off any talk of his demise for another week.

The full list of “Hot Seat” games in October:

LSU at Auburn on Oct. 1:

If Harsin is going to make a job-saving run, it must begin against LSU. A loss could seal his fate as Auburn’s coach, especially an ugly one. Auburn also must show tangible progress on offense. After LSU, Auburn faces three consecutive ranked opponents, beginning with No. 1 Georgia on Oct. 8 in Athens.

  • Colorado at Arizona, Oct. 1
  • Louisville at Virginia, Oct. 8
  • Fresno State at Boise State, Oct. 8
  • Appalachian State at Texas State, Oct. 8
  • Tulane at South Florida, Oct. 15
  • Vanderbilt at Missouri, Oct. 22
  • West Virginia at Texas Tech, Oct. 22

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LSU’s contest vs. Auburn has hot-seat implications for Bryan Harsin

Harsin could be out of a job if AU doesn’t perform well hosting LSU on Saturday.

When LSU hits the road for the first time this season to take on Auburn in Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday, the Tigers from the plains will have a bit more to play for than extending their winning streak in the rivalry to three games.

Coach Bryan Harsin is only in his second season, but his 9-8 record leaves a lot to be desired. He was nearly fired this past offseason, and his seat seems to be engulfed in flames as things currently stand. Last week’s win over Missouri bought him another week, but a poor showing on Saturday could prove to be the final straw.

ESPN listed the LSU-Auburn contest as a hot-seat game to watch in October as a result of what a loss would do to Harsin’s already tenuous standing.

If Harsin is going to make a job-saving run, it must begin against LSU. A loss could seal his fate as Auburn’s coach, especially an ugly one. Auburn also must show tangible progress on offense. After LSU, Auburn faces three consecutive ranked opponents, beginning with No. 1 Georgia on Oct. 8 in Athens.

In the same piece, Adam Rittenberg elaborates on Harsin’s situation.

If Auburn had lost to Missouri, a game it led 14-0 after 12 minutes, Harsin might not have survived the weekend with his job. Thanks to Missouri’s overtime goal-line fumble, he gets at least another week on the Plains, but needs a strong showing Saturday against LSU. Industry sources continue to say interim athletic director Rich McGlynn is a strong candidate to land the permanent job, and could handle the Harsin firing and the initial part of a coaching search. Auburn’s defense played much better against Missouri than the week before against Penn State, but Harsin’s offense has scored more than 24 points just once in four games.

The results in this game over the last two seasons almost certainly helped expedite the end of the [autotag]Ed Orgeron[/autotag] era in Baton Rouge. Now, it seems the script is flipped heading into Week 5 as coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] looks to start SEC play 2-0.

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Dan Wolken: ‘Bryan Harsin has turned Auburn into a bad and boring football team’

Bryan Harsin and company headline this week’s ‘Misery Index’

Each and every week after the slate of college football games on Saturday, national columnist Dan Wolken puts together his “misery index”. A collection of teams that are having a miserable time on game days. This week the list is headlined by Bryan Harsin and the Auburn Tigers football team.

Wolken writes that it isn’t just losing by 29+ points at home for the first time since Georgia skunked them in 2012 (38-0). It’s more that they don’t have the talent on this team currently and it doesn’t appear to be coming next year either.

Auburn’s biggest problem is not necessarily losing 41-12 to Penn State.

Make no mistake, it’s not good. The worst Auburn team you’ve ever seen should not lose by 29 points at home to the best Penn State team James Franklin could possibly put together. But it’s not the first or last time Auburn will have a bad day on the football field.

He isn’t wrong. Looking at this team right now, Auburn doesn’t look like a team that can come back from big deficits. They forgot about [autotag]Tank Bigsby[/autotag] during the game, he averaged 7 yards per touch but only heard his number called 11 times. Backup quarterback [autotag]Robby Ashford[/autotag] had more carries than the Tigers leading rusher.

Speaking of the quarterbacks, [autotag]T.J. Finley[/autotag] and Ashford just don’t seem to have enough juice to overcome what we are seeing on the field. You could argue that it was just one game, being 2-1 isn’t a bad thing right now. But it is how they look on the field, the win over San Jose State didn’t do much in terms of confidence in this team.

But as Wolken continues, the losses aren’t even the worst thing happening on the Plains for Harsin and the Tigers.

The more pressing issue for Auburn right now is in the recruiting rankings, where 247 Sports ranks the Tigers’ 2023 class No. 62 in the country, just behind Washington State, Oklahoma State and Missouri.

Auburn’s current coach is Bryan Harsin. After going 6-7 in his first season, it seemed that a salacious whisper campaign about his alleged off-field behavior was aimed at getting him fired. After the school found there was nothing to those rumors, Harsin kept his job. But the reality for Harsin was that only two things were going to calm the waters long-term: A lot of wins or a lot of blue-chip recruits.

The first one isn’t going to happen. This might be the least talented Auburn team since the late 1970s, and it would be semi-miraculous for Harsin to win eight games this year. If Auburn had a bunch of studs waiting in the wings, this might be survivable for another year. But at 62nd in recruiting? This seems like a dead end for Harsin, who won a lot of games at Boise State but has not shown an aptitude or an appetite for the cutthroat world of SEC football.

Through 16 games with Auburn, Harsin is 8-8. When you are playing .500 football and not getting top-tier recruits, there is only so much that the administration will put up. Given the attempted coup this past February, I would guess they won’t put up with much more.

At this point, it is beginning to feel like a matter of when, not if, Harsin is relieved of his duties. This would put Auburn on the coaching market and join the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who already parted ways with their head coach this season.

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247Sports’ analysts discuss the future of Harsin following Greene’s exit

What is it going to take to keep Bryan Harsin on the Plains after Allen Greene’s exit?

Prior to the kickoff for the 2022 season for the Auburn Tigers, there was a huge move made. Athletic director Allen Greene, who hired Bryan Harsin from Boise State over former assistant Kevin Steele, stepped down from his post ahead of his contract expiring in January.

The consensus, at least among the boosters, seemed to be that they favored Steele over Harsin. There was even an attempted coup in February where the head coach came under fire at the 6-7 season that ended with a loss to Houston in the Birmingham Bowl.

Auburn finished 6-5 with a loss in the Citrus Bowl in 2021 when the school relieved Gus Malzahn of his duties after an eight-year run with the Tigers. He led them to a national championship game berth in year one of his tenure but the Tigers never reached that height once again.

On an episode of ‘The Block’, Carl Reed and Blake Brockermeyer of 247Sports discussed what happens now with Harsin. As Brockermeyer stated, the head coach and athletic director are often tied to one another but how can Harsin avoid the same fate as his former boss?

Reed believes that nothing short of a national championship in 2022 or beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa will keep Harsin employed on the Plains. Brockermeyer had a similar statement as Reed. He believes that Auburn has to win the SEC West for the former Boise State head coach to keep his job with Auburn.

With their backs against the wall, we will soon find out if the team rallies around Harsin in 2022.

The full segment can be found on 247Sports.

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New list has Bryan Harsin needing a strong first month in 2022

Penn State looks to be the Tigers’ only true challenge during that slate.

It goes without question for many, but [autotag]Bryan Harsin[/autotag]’s 2022 is more than just a sophomore campaign — it’s a year to prove he belongs, and early slip-ups simply cannot be afforded.

A new list by For the Win put Harsin as its first head coach in a group of them who need a strong first month of the season to fend off the hot seat. Here’s a little of what the list said about Harsin and the need for a crucial start to his second year:

(The Tigers) have a relatively friendly front half of the season and could start 4-0 if they can survive at home against Penn State in Week 3. But the recruiting is lagging behind in Auburn, and anything short of a nine or 10-win season may not be enough to protect Harsin from a second round of offseason turmoil.

Penn State will indeed be the biggest obstacle, as Mercer, San Jose State and Missouri aren’t likely to give Harsin and his squad any trouble. The first month may also not be enough, however, as Harsin will need to finish strong at the end of the season to convince the boosters that attempted to remove him that he deserves to continue coaching on the Plains.

Auburn will face off against Mercer to kick off the season on Sept. 3.

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New list says Scott Frost on one of the hottest seats in football

How does Frost’s hot seat compare to the rest of college football?

Another day, another list putting Scott Frost on the hot seat, but just how hot is that seat compared to the other hot seat coaches in college football. CBS Sports has released its annual Hot Seat Rankings, and the numbers don’t lie. Released every year since 2016, the list has placed 35 different coaches on the hottest of seats, and of those 35 coaches, 23 have been fired.

Coaching changes happen every year. In just the last three years, 67 schools have hired a new head football coach. That’s 51% of Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly knowns as Division I) teams that have made a change on the sideline in the last three seasons. Last season alone saw 30 programs make a head coaching change, and the current turnover rate doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. In fact, we already have a coaching change for 2022 as UAB coach Bill Clark, unfortunately, had to resign on June 24th due to a deteriorating back condition.

We know the seat under Scott Frost is red hot right now, but where does he stack up against his fellow hot-seat coaches? Scroll below and see. I don’t think you’ll be surprised.

Another hot seat list puts Harsin at forefront

Another day, another list putting coach Bryan Harsin on the hot seat.

Death, taxes, and head coach [autotag]Bryan Harsin[/autotag] on the hot seat.

It should come as no surprise to Auburn fans at this point, but CBSSports’ annual hot seat rankings have Bryan Harsin’s seat pinned down as one of the three hottest in college football behind Arizona’s Herm Edwards and Nebraska’s Scott Frost.

Here is what the list had to say about Harsin’s current job outlook as he heads into 2022:

“Harsin is a decent man and good coach, but he was the latest to go through the Auburn Churn that seems to impact every Tigers coach eventually. For a couple of weeks in February, it looked like Harsin had lost his job. In the end, it was JABA — Just Auburn Being Auburn. Something tells me, none of it would have happened had Auburn been able to hold against Alabama. Both coordinators have been replaced, but RB Tank Bigsby is back. By now, Harsin has to know you’re only as good as your next game at Auburn where job security is written in invisible ink.”

Things can change quickly. Harsin was ranked as a two on the article’s scale from zero to five in 2021, meaning that he was at that point “safe… for now.” His fortunes aren’t quite as promising this year, with the list giving him a four out of five meaning that he must “start improving now”.

Harsin will begin his chance to redeem himself from last year’s disappointing season and ensuing fallout when the Tigers take on Mercer on Sept. 3.

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