Opinion: Auburn Football Power Brokers Screwed up, Now Auburn Fans Will Suffer
AUBURN, Ala. - The people down on The Plains that want Auburn Football to be successful are often blindsided by the success just 156 miles to the northwest in Tuscaloosa at the University of Alabama. Perhaps that’s a major reason why they let go now UCF Head Coach Gus Malzahn after the 2020 season.
Bad move.
With the hiring of Bryan Harsin, Auburn’s so-called experts led to and/or caused all of the following:
- The firing of the coach that defeated Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban three times.
- Hired a West Coast personality to coach in the Deep South at a rural institution.
- Expected that same person, Coach Harsin, as well as his family, to suddenly adjust to the “Auburn way.”
- Act surprised that Coach Harsin wanted the Oregon and Washington jobs just one year into his tenure after the way he and his family were treated by some Auburn fans and alumni.
- Placed themselves in a no-win situation as any coach with sanity does not want the Auburn job while these same individuals run the show for Auburn.
Good luck to Auburn fans. Minus the Tigers fans that acted like idiots by heckling (or whatever term wants to use) members of Harsin’s family, Auburn’s fans are generally really good people. They are, in fact, some of the nicest people anyone can meet.
As someone that was a LSU graduate student in 2010 and attended the famed Auburn-LSU game that year in Jordan-Hare Stadium, I have personally never been treated any better by a fan base while on their campus.
“Thank you for coming to Auburn. Come back and see us again!”
Those were the types of comments that this once LSU graduate student found while wearing a LSU shirt on the Auburn campus during that Autumn day. To say that I was blown away, well, that’s an incredibly big understatement. To that end, the vast majority of the Tigers faithful do not deserve the stupidity that’s taking place with their football program. Unfortunately, it’s about to get much, much worse.
First, who in the world wants the Auburn job with Coach Saban at Alabama and Head Coach Kirby Smart at Georgia? Those are the two biggest rivals for Auburn, and arguably the two strongest college football programs in the country. Good luck with that.
Next, the college coaching fraternity is not a huge group; they do communicate with one another frequently. Anyone think that Coach Harsin’s situation is not circulating amongst the ranks of college coaches? Gee, I wonder if anyone really wants that job that Auburn fans would also be happy about signing on the dotted line?
Finally, third, who wants to lose some money and bet me that the next coach (Harsin is toast, and we all know it) is no place near the person that the Auburn administration and its fan base truly wants to hire? Moreover, the Auburn brass will still sell the lie that line of “He’s our guy!” to its fans and boosters to try and raise money. It’s a joke.
Going back to the five points listed above, they cannot and will not be ignored by the agents of top coaching candidates. Auburn is absolutely in a no-win situation. They are not going to suggest to their high-priced clientele that the Auburn head coaching position is currently a good career move. Considering what’s happened already, how could they come to any other conclusion?
Whether it was current Auburn Athletics Director Allen Greene, some other individual(s), or a collection of thoughts that led to Harsin coming to Auburn, it’s not relevant really. Why? It’s just obvious that it was a horrible decision to get rid of Malzahn and hire Harsin. The following tweet sure seems like a long time ago...Of course at this time there was a man leading the Auburn program that understood the school he represented.
#Auburn Athletic Director Allen Greene @AGreeneIV congratulated and hugged the Tigers as they excited the field after their win against #Oregon . #OregonvsAuburn #WarEagle pic.twitter.com/wVIgl6FJ8S
— Ronald Gaines, Jr. (@RonGSports) September 1, 2019
Beyond the third offensive coordinator being under Coach Harsin, or elite Defensive Coordinator Derek Mason taking a perceived step down to be the Defensive Coordinator at Oklahoma State, there are so many signs of failure under Harsin. Again, however, nobody should be surprised.
You cannot hire a West Coast coach to be at Auburn. Horrible idea. Now the powers that be must attempt to fix this mess, but first the Auburn ship must sink to the bottom of the SEC. It will, and soon.
Look for quite a few transfers, more coaches to bolt, as well as some staff to leave as well. Oh, spring practice is right around the corner. That should go well…
Here’s another bet for someone out there. Anyone want to place that bet that Auburn does not make the top five in the SEC West next year?
It is not out of the question that Auburn comes in dead last. The people that made the decision to hire Harsin are to blame, but they will probably pass on the mess as not their fault like CNN often says there was no cheating in the last Presidential Election. Both are incorrect, and Auburn fans should be ticked off to no end about their head coaching situation as much as the price of gas due to Joe Biden and the Democratic party’s cheating and stupidity.
Think to yourself, how could Auburn fix this situation and do so quickly? Is that really even realistic? The next 12 to 24 months at Auburn are going to be tricky, and that same time frame could lead to several articles and even books written about how to screw up a college football program.
Auburn fans deserve much better, but what’s to come in the near future is not going to be pretty. I will leave you this question: who can Auburn truly hire at this point to salvage the situation?
