If We Can Keep Tank

[wde1968 262]

Which players seem to perform better after transfer? Quite simply if you compare the lists those coming in are way more productive than those transferring out after its said and done. Most transferring out aren't heard from again.

[jluvah 673]

17 minutes ago, Auburn Tiger said:

The more I’m hearing about that dude, the less I’m liking him. 

I may be wrong, but I think he’s talking about the other Bo.

[Guest MustardSeed]

33 minutes ago, autiger88 said:

He was talking about Bo Jackson. 

😂. Well then 

 

[jluvah 673]

37 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

Well said. We no longer raise men. We’ve let society do it for us. My generation was the first that received cable tv and video games and too many rode their childhood into their 40s and raised kids while never having grown up themselves.  I could go deep into all the things the Lord has been showing me about this…including in myself…and how to begin fixing it but it’s not the right place for it. But it starts with true fathers and true community intertwined. 

You may get skewered on here for saying this, but you are right.

[McLoofus 35,182]

11 hours ago, Auburn Tiger said:

Tank: “Harsin, I’m still pissed about that 4th and 2. Let me eat in a game when I’m pissed, or I’m gonna find a team that will.”

Harsin: "And I'm still pissed you went out of bounds on the previous play. Maybe we both need to do better."

Edited December 14, 2021 by McLoofus

[Guest MustardSeed]

51 minutes ago, jluvah said:

You may get skewered on here for saying this

Part of the territory. One of the many reasons we are to die to ourselves 😉

[augolf1716 21,434]

9 hours ago, 3rdgeneration said:

😂😂😂 It’s better to laugh than to cry.  What’s going on at Auburn now is just ridiculous.  Gonna have to just wait and see how it all pans out.  

it will be all good 

[bishoptf 699]

16 hours ago, USATiger said:

The only thing is, it is too easy the way it is now.  No way to quantify this, but just for reference, two of the statues at Auburn wouldn't be there if the portal was like this back then.  Kids get beat out, fine just transfer, coach being a meany, transfer, gotta run stadiums, transfer.  That is my only concern with Harsin, he is tough and demanding.  We aren't at that level where kids come to get to the NFL, so many will make an emotional decision, that if the portal wasn't so wide open, would have to suck it up.   Barkley and Bo would've been gone before the coaches could talk them out of it.  Just like them, often times it helps a person for life, to work hard, and overcome instead of running.  Time will tell I guess

I'm ok with the portal and with how it is now. Kids for the most part should have the same level of freedom that the coaches do. The coaches for years come and go as they please while it was much more difficult for the kids.  I do not think you see many starting RB and QB's enter the portal but I guess they feel like Harsin is rebuilding and playing somewhere else next year gives them a better opportunity. The landscape for way to long has not been tilted in the kids favor and the portal and the NIL stuff I think starts to make it better for them.

Just my opinion...:)

[autigeremt 6,776]

12 minutes ago, bishoptf said:

I'm ok with the portal and with how it is now. Kids for the most part should have the same level of freedom that the coaches do. The coaches for years come and go as they please while it was much more difficult for the kids.  I do not think you see many starting RB and QB's enter the portal but I guess they feel like Harsin is rebuilding and playing somewhere else next year gives them a better opportunity. The landscape for way to long has not been tilted in the kids favor and the portal and the NIL stuff I think starts to make it better for them.

Just my opinion...:)

I'm 50/50 on the portal as it exists today. If players are going to have the liberty to move around they also need to build the maturity to overcome adversity in the process. I would like to see an amendment to the rule that a player must attend two years prior to being eligible for the portal. Coaches are grown men and women. Student athletes aren't. 

[bishoptf 699]

38 minutes ago, autigeremt said:

I'm 50/50 on the portal as it exists today. If players are going to have the liberty to move around they also need to build the maturity to overcome adversity in the process. I would like to see an amendment to the rule that a player must attend two years prior to being eligible for the portal. Coaches are grown men and women. Student athletes aren't. 

I don't disagree that there is always room for improvement but for far to long the table has been tilted and the kids (notice I say kids) were the ones that got the short end of things. How many times have we seen coaches just pickup and move to greener pastures, all I am saying is kids should be able to do the same as the coaches. Now if we want to put some more structure around that I am fine but it should apply to the coaches also, IMHO.

 

Now regarding the comment that coaches being grown men and women, that is true for the most part, not sure I would consider Kiffen years ago as that though, and he is not the only one. *rofl*

[WFE12 9,191]

Cadillac recruited this dude 3 times…Go crazy Cadillac Go Crazy!!!!

[JerryAU 1,694]

13 hours ago, Auburn Tiger said:

Yes, it is huge. The kid rushed for 1k yards behind an O-line everyone used to excuse Bo’s poor performances. Let’s not forget that part. The. Kid. Hit. 1k. Yards. He’s a great back.

I imagine the meeting with Harsin went something like this:

Tank: “Harsin, I’m still pissed about that 4th and 2. Let me eat in a game when I’m pissed, or I’m gonna find a team that will.”

Harsin: “I know. I know. That was Bobo, and he’s gone now. You’re gonna eat, kid. You’re gonna eat.”

Tank: “Let’s go!”

Tank was our first 1,000 yrd rusher we've had in years too!  

[AUBwins 10,107]

1 hour ago, JerryAU said:

Tank was our first 1,000 yrd rusher we've had in years too!  

That was such a quiet 1000 yards too

[USATiger 741]

3 hours ago, bishoptf said:

I'm ok with the portal and with how it is now. Kids for the most part should have the same level of freedom that the coaches do. The coaches for years come and go as they please while it was much more difficult for the kids.  I do not think you see many starting RB and QB's enter the portal but I guess they feel like Harsin is rebuilding and playing somewhere else next year gives them a better opportunity. The landscape for way to long has not been tilted in the kids favor and the portal and the NIL stuff I think starts to make it better for them.

Just my opinion...:)

All very good points, and I back and forth on the deal.  Heck, yesterday, I argued for and against the portal in the same thread.  So, today I am just going to be Sweden about it. 😆 .  

[Auburninbham 20]

 

I don't get this "sometimes you have to tear it down to make it better" nonsense.

When we parted ways with Gus after the 2020 season, we were *not* in need a complete overhaul.

We had a 9-3 regular season(and then lost the bowl game) in 2019 that featured wins over a highly ranked Oregon team as well as Alabama(who was 10-1 going into the Iron Bowl).

That was a *good* season.  Was it great?  No.  Was it the kind of season fans talk fondly about 20 years later like 2004 or 2010 or even 2013?  No.  But newsflash- 9-3 in the sec west with a win over Alabama and a top 10/15 ooc win as well? That's a good year. That's not a year indicative over a complete rebuild.

Now let's look at 2020.  6-4.  That's an all-sec schedule though, and 3 of the losses were to an all time great national champion team(ok), Georgia on the road and top 5 at end of the year Texas A&M.  I'm not saying any loss is acceptable, but when you say "oh they were 6-4" it has to be taken into account that it was an all conference schedule and not only that it was a very tough all conference schedule(with Georgia being the west opponent).

But yeah I get it-  a 6-4 season on the heels of a 9-3 season is not what we strive for at Auburn.  We strive for 2004, 2010, 2013.  So given that, the Gus era had gotten stale and a change was good.

So I definitely will admit that we fired Gus because it had gotten a bit stale and we needed to make a change to strive for bigger and better things.  But that is a LONG way from saying we were in trouble as a program, we had hit rock bottom, we needed a rebuilt, etc.  It's even a long way from saying we were in 'bad shape' when Gus left.  Because we weren't.  We didn't have a Bama/Georgia type loaded roster when Gus exited, but as far as teams who just changed let a coach go, we would have been in better shape than just about any.

This was the opposite of a 2019 Arkansas type situation, where a program really was at rock bottom and needed a complete overhaul.  Harsin instead took over a program in pretty good shape who over the least two years had won 65% of their regular season games with a *tough* schedule(right up there amongst the toughest in the country over that time).

So while I am not anti-Harsin, I also don't get the cheerleading for him at this point when seemingly bad news hits(like Tank leaving).  And I definitely don't get this idea that we as Auburn fans are going to be super patient as he takes us on a long painful rebuild while he tears it down the studs and we experience some losing over the next couple years.....

 

I'm sorry....what?  If Harsin is still losing in *year 3* of his regime, that would be a serious ******* problem for him.  Even next year is a super important year for Harsin to show that he is getting things turned around from a dissapointing first year.  Auburn fans aren't going to be super patient with this guy....he didn't inherit a dumpster fire, or anything close to it.  Did he inherit a team ready made to win the sec?  No, of course not.  But he sure as hell didn't inherit a bad situation relative to most jobs.  

 

And yeah, it's a little concerning that we're just hearing now how Harsin "has to start tearing it down to the studs".  Ummmm....what the hell was the first year?  Was that just a freebie or a write-off?  Auburn fans are willing to give Harsin a year to right the ship before expecting things to be moving in a very positive direction this year, but let's be very clear- THE CLOCK STARTED LAST YEAR.  He doesn't get to come into this year, year 2, and say "ok guys, now we have to start over so don't judge me yet...."   No, it doesn't work that way.  

So all I see to this point is the following:

1) Harsin took over a program that was winning 65% of it's game over the last 2 years(even with an all-sec schedule one of those years), and promptly went 6-6 his first year, and 3 of those victories were ooc garbage games so he was only 3-5 in conference play.  

2) Harsin's recruiting in his second class(but really his first class with him at the helm as the first doesn't count) has been....underwhelming to say the least.  Yes we won't finish #35 of course and we will likely finish around 20th.  But that's not good.  This is usually the class(the first 'real class') where a foundational coach leaves a market in recruiting- thats what Saban, Smart, etc did with this class.  Instead Harsin has the class backpedaling from Gus' classes.  And no I don't want to hear nonsense like "well with those other coaches you're comparing them to classes where signing day was 2 months later".....please, those are excuses.  Even with a little earlier signing day it is a reasonable expectation for a coach to have a big splash recruiting class with this 'first real class'.  Harsin is going to fail at that.

3) We're losing key players in the transfer portal a year into his tenure.  The cheerleaders are saying "bo nix leaving is a good thing because we will get someone like Kedon Slovis who is better anyways".  well putting aside the fact that it's debatable whether  Slovis is better than Nix going forward,  we haven't got Slovis yet.  So lets hold off assuming that we are going to get a top portal guy in the first place.  And while I don't think losing a rb like Tank is an overwhelming loss, it's definately not a negative to some degree.  The general trend of losing key players who weren'tbad apples or bad character guys this far into the tenure is *not good*.

 

4) He's already fired his OC.  *His* OC.  I found it funny how a lot of cheerleaders were writing this off as an example that Harsin is 'cleaning house' and 'gotta tear down the studs'.  Ummm.....*he* drove those studs in in this case!!  It's not like Bobo was forced on Harsin.  It was a very attractive job and Harsin could pick whoever he wanted, and after just one year he's had to fire *his* pick.  Again....that's objectively not a good thing.  And yet some of the cheerleaders on here for Harsin are using this as an example of how he's made yet another hard choice that is required when rebuilding a program. False...and false.  He hired the guy so it's not a 'hard choice' but a mistake on his end in he first place; and his job here was not to 'rebuild' our program.  We weren't Arkansas 2019 or anything close to that.

5) I'm not seeing what Harsin is really doing this far into his tenure(and again we are at a point where other coaches were showing momentum by this point) to address the acknowledged deficiences we did have coming into his tenure.  Practically in this forum has been beating the same drum about our offensive line depth-  that Gus didn't recruit it well the last several years and as a result it is a bare bones offensive line room.  Ok, that's a fair point.  So a year and one season later, what has Harsin done to address this?  Where are the solid guys he has found in the portal to slide into OL spots?  Who are the stud O-lineman in this class he is bringing in to restock this position of need?  I'll acknowledge the fact that Harsin didn't inherit a stacked o-line room when he got here, but hells bells we are a year later in the process.....what has he done/doing in this last key year to get things fixed and/or moving in the right direction there?

 

I feel like all the above are pretty objective observations and questions.  I'm not an anti-harsin guy and I certainly hope he gets things turned around from his lackluster first year and gets things moving in the right direction.  But I'm certainly not going to sit back and give him a blank check in terms of time to start doing well.  He didn't take over a situation where that is warranted imo.  And I'm just a nobody/lowly alum who doesn't write the big checks or matter in the end more than any other Auburn grad who is a fan.  I do have season tickets but so do tens of thousands of others....but I think most of the big donors feel a similar way, and aren't going to have a tremendous amount of patience either.  This is a *big* year coming up for Harsin, and he needs to figure out a way for year 2 to be a lot better on the field than year 1.  

 

[Auburn Tiger 1,340]

1 hour ago, JerryAU said:

Tank was our first 1,000 yrd rusher we've had in years too!  

Since Kerryon, right?

[DAG 34,034]

1 hour ago, Auburninbham said:

 

I don't get this "sometimes you have to tear it down to make it better" nonsense.

When we parted ways with Gus after the 2020 season, we were *not* in need a complete overhaul.

We had a 9-3 regular season(and then lost the bowl game) in 2019 that featured wins over a highly ranked Oregon team as well as Alabama(who was 10-1 going into the Iron Bowl).

That was a *good* season.  Was it great?  No.  Was it the kind of season fans talk fondly about 20 years later like 2004 or 2010 or even 2013?  No.  But newsflash- 9-3 in the sec west with a win over Alabama and a top 10/15 ooc win as well? That's a good year. That's not a year indicative over a complete rebuild.

Now let's look at 2020.  6-4.  That's an all-sec schedule though, and 3 of the losses were to an all time great national champion team(ok), Georgia on the road and top 5 at end of the year Texas A&M.  I'm not saying any loss is acceptable, but when you say "oh they were 6-4" it has to be taken into account that it was an all conference schedule and not only that it was a very tough all conference schedule(with Georgia being the west opponent).

But yeah I get it-  a 6-4 season on the heels of a 9-3 season is not what we strive for at Auburn.  We strive for 2004, 2010, 2013.  So given that, the Gus era had gotten stale and a change was good.

So I definitely will admit that we fired Gus because it had gotten a bit stale and we needed to make a change to strive for bigger and better things.  But that is a LONG way from saying we were in trouble as a program, we had hit rock bottom, we needed a rebuilt, etc.  It's even a long way from saying we were in 'bad shape' when Gus left.  Because we weren't.  We didn't have a Bama/Georgia type loaded roster when Gus exited, but as far as teams who just changed let a coach go, we would have been in better shape than just about any.

This was the opposite of a 2019 Arkansas type situation, where a program really was at rock bottom and needed a complete overhaul.  Harsin instead took over a program in pretty good shape who over the least two years had won 65% of their regular season games with a *tough* schedule(right up there amongst the toughest in the country over that time).

So while I am not anti-Harsin, I also don't get the cheerleading for him at this point when seemingly bad news hits(like Tank leaving).  And I definitely don't get this idea that we as Auburn fans are going to be super patient as he takes us on a long painful rebuild while he tears it down the studs and we experience some losing over the next couple years.....

 

I'm sorry....what?  If Harsin is still losing in *year 3* of his regime, that would be a serious ******* problem for him.  Even next year is a super important year for Harsin to show that he is getting things turned around from a dissapointing first year.  Auburn fans aren't going to be super patient with this guy....he didn't inherit a dumpster fire, or anything close to it.  Did he inherit a team ready made to win the sec?  No, of course not.  But he sure as hell didn't inherit a bad situation relative to most jobs.  

 

And yeah, it's a little concerning that we're just hearing now how Harsin "has to start tearing it down to the studs".  Ummmm....what the hell was the first year?  Was that just a freebie or a write-off?  Auburn fans are willing to give Harsin a year to right the ship before expecting things to be moving in a very positive direction this year, but let's be very clear- THE CLOCK STARTED LAST YEAR.  He doesn't get to come into this year, year 2, and say "ok guys, now we have to start over so don't judge me yet...."   No, it doesn't work that way.  

So all I see to this point is the following:

1) Harsin took over a program that was winning 65% of it's game over the last 2 years(even with an all-sec schedule one of those years), and promptly went 6-6 his first year, and 3 of those victories were ooc garbage games so he was only 3-5 in conference play.  

2) Harsin's recruiting in his second class(but really his first class with him at the helm as the first doesn't count) has been....underwhelming to say the least.  Yes we won't finish #35 of course and we will likely finish around 20th.  But that's not good.  This is usually the class(the first 'real class') where a foundational coach leaves a market in recruiting- thats what Saban, Smart, etc did with this class.  Instead Harsin has the class backpedaling from Gus' classes.  And no I don't want to hear nonsense like "well with those other coaches you're comparing them to classes where signing day was 2 months later".....please, those are excuses.  Even with a little earlier signing day it is a reasonable expectation for a coach to have a big splash recruiting class with this 'first real class'.  Harsin is going to fail at that.

3) We're losing key players in the transfer portal a year into his tenure.  The cheerleaders are saying "bo nix leaving is a good thing because we will get someone like Kedon Slovis who is better anyways".  well putting aside the fact that it's debatable whether  Slovis is better than Nix going forward,  we haven't got Slovis yet.  So lets hold off assuming that we are going to get a top portal guy in the first place.  And while I don't think losing a rb like Tank is an overwhelming loss, it's definately not a negative to some degree.  The general trend of losing key players who weren'tbad apples or bad character guys this far into the tenure is *not good*.

 

4) He's already fired his OC.  *His* OC.  I found it funny how a lot of cheerleaders were writing this off as an example that Harsin is 'cleaning house' and 'gotta tear down the studs'.  Ummm.....*he* drove those studs in in this case!!  It's not like Bobo was forced on Harsin.  It was a very attractive job and Harsin could pick whoever he wanted, and after just one year he's had to fire *his* pick.  Again....that's objectively not a good thing.  And yet some of the cheerleaders on here for Harsin are using this as an example of how he's made yet another hard choice that is required when rebuilding a program. False...and false.  He hired the guy so it's not a 'hard choice' but a mistake on his end in he first place; and his job here was not to 'rebuild' our program.  We weren't Arkansas 2019 or anything close to that.

5) I'm not seeing what Harsin is really doing this far into his tenure(and again we are at a point where other coaches were showing momentum by this point) to address the acknowledged deficiences we did have coming into his tenure.  Practically in this forum has been beating the same drum about our offensive line depth-  that Gus didn't recruit it well the last several years and as a result it is a bare bones offensive line room.  Ok, that's a fair point.  So a year and one season later, what has Harsin done to address this?  Where are the solid guys he has found in the portal to slide into OL spots?  Who are the stud O-lineman in this class he is bringing in to restock this position of need?  I'll acknowledge the fact that Harsin didn't inherit a stacked o-line room when he got here, but hells bells we are a year later in the process.....what has he done/doing in this last key year to get things fixed and/or moving in the right direction there?

 

I feel like all the above are pretty objective observations and questions.  I'm not an anti-harsin guy and I certainly hope he gets things turned around from his lackluster first year and gets things moving in the right direction.  But I'm certainly not going to sit back and give him a blank check in terms of time to start doing well.  He didn't take over a situation where that is warranted imo.  And I'm just a nobody/lowly alum who doesn't write the big checks or matter in the end more than any other Auburn grad who is a fan.  I do have season tickets but so do tens of thousands of others....but I think most of the big donors feel a similar way, and aren't going to have a tremendous amount of patience either.  This is a *big* year coming up for Harsin, and he needs to figure out a way for year 2 to be a lot better on the field than year 1.  

 

[USATiger 741]

5 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Harsin: "And I'm still pissed you went out of bounds on the previous play. Maybe we both need to do better."

In Harsin's defense, and I'm sure this was part of the convo the other day...."Tank I fired that dumbass SOB, I swear it won't happen next year".

[boisnumber1 2,828]

7 minutes ago, DAG said:

Aint that the truth 😂 But the first little bit let me know I was all good in not reading it 

[Farmer Brown 2,391]

1 hour ago, Auburninbham said:

 

I don't get this "sometimes you have to tear it down to make it better" nonsense.

When we parted ways with Gus after the 2020 season, we were *not* in need a complete overhaul.

We had a 9-3 regular season(and then lost the bowl game) in 2019 that featured wins over a highly ranked Oregon team as well as Alabama(who was 10-1 going into the Iron Bowl).

That was a *good* season.  Was it great?  No.  Was it the kind of season fans talk fondly about 20 years later like 2004 or 2010 or even 2013?  No.  But newsflash- 9-3 in the sec west with a win over Alabama and a top 10/15 ooc win as well? That's a good year. That's not a year indicative over a complete rebuild.

Now let's look at 2020.  6-4.  That's an all-sec schedule though, and 3 of the losses were to an all time great national champion team(ok), Georgia on the road and top 5 at end of the year Texas A&M.  I'm not saying any loss is acceptable, but when you say "oh they were 6-4" it has to be taken into account that it was an all conference schedule and not only that it was a very tough all conference schedule(with Georgia being the west opponent).

But yeah I get it-  a 6-4 season on the heels of a 9-3 season is not what we strive for at Auburn.  We strive for 2004, 2010, 2013.  So given that, the Gus era had gotten stale and a change was good.

So I definitely will admit that we fired Gus because it had gotten a bit stale and we needed to make a change to strive for bigger and better things.  But that is a LONG way from saying we were in trouble as a program, we had hit rock bottom, we needed a rebuilt, etc.  It's even a long way from saying we were in 'bad shape' when Gus left.  Because we weren't.  We didn't have a Bama/Georgia type loaded roster when Gus exited, but as far as teams who just changed let a coach go, we would have been in better shape than just about any.

This was the opposite of a 2019 Arkansas type situation, where a program really was at rock bottom and needed a complete overhaul.  Harsin instead took over a program in pretty good shape who over the least two years had won 65% of their regular season games with a *tough* schedule(right up there amongst the toughest in the country over that time).

So while I am not anti-Harsin, I also don't get the cheerleading for him at this point when seemingly bad news hits(like Tank leaving).  And I definitely don't get this idea that we as Auburn fans are going to be super patient as he takes us on a long painful rebuild while he tears it down the studs and we experience some losing over the next couple years.....

 

I'm sorry....what?  If Harsin is still losing in *year 3* of his regime, that would be a serious ******* problem for him.  Even next year is a super important year for Harsin to show that he is getting things turned around from a dissapointing first year.  Auburn fans aren't going to be super patient with this guy....he didn't inherit a dumpster fire, or anything close to it.  Did he inherit a team ready made to win the sec?  No, of course not.  But he sure as hell didn't inherit a bad situation relative to most jobs.  

 

And yeah, it's a little concerning that we're just hearing now how Harsin "has to start tearing it down to the studs".  Ummmm....what the hell was the first year?  Was that just a freebie or a write-off?  Auburn fans are willing to give Harsin a year to right the ship before expecting things to be moving in a very positive direction this year, but let's be very clear- THE CLOCK STARTED LAST YEAR.  He doesn't get to come into this year, year 2, and say "ok guys, now we have to start over so don't judge me yet...."   No, it doesn't work that way.  

So all I see to this point is the following:

1) Harsin took over a program that was winning 65% of it's game over the last 2 years(even with an all-sec schedule one of those years), and promptly went 6-6 his first year, and 3 of those victories were ooc garbage games so he was only 3-5 in conference play.  

2) Harsin's recruiting in his second class(but really his first class with him at the helm as the first doesn't count) has been....underwhelming to say the least.  Yes we won't finish #35 of course and we will likely finish around 20th.  But that's not good.  This is usually the class(the first 'real class') where a foundational coach leaves a market in recruiting- thats what Saban, Smart, etc did with this class.  Instead Harsin has the class backpedaling from Gus' classes.  And no I don't want to hear nonsense like "well with those other coaches you're comparing them to classes where signing day was 2 months later".....please, those are excuses.  Even with a little earlier signing day it is a reasonable expectation for a coach to have a big splash recruiting class with this 'first real class'.  Harsin is going to fail at that.

3) We're losing key players in the transfer portal a year into his tenure.  The cheerleaders are saying "bo nix leaving is a good thing because we will get someone like Kedon Slovis who is better anyways".  well putting aside the fact that it's debatable whether  Slovis is better than Nix going forward,  we haven't got Slovis yet.  So lets hold off assuming that we are going to get a top portal guy in the first place.  And while I don't think losing a rb like Tank is an overwhelming loss, it's definately not a negative to some degree.  The general trend of losing key players who weren'tbad apples or bad character guys this far into the tenure is *not good*.

 

4) He's already fired his OC.  *His* OC.  I found it funny how a lot of cheerleaders were writing this off as an example that Harsin is 'cleaning house' and 'gotta tear down the studs'.  Ummm.....*he* drove those studs in in this case!!  It's not like Bobo was forced on Harsin.  It was a very attractive job and Harsin could pick whoever he wanted, and after just one year he's had to fire *his* pick.  Again....that's objectively not a good thing.  And yet some of the cheerleaders on here for Harsin are using this as an example of how he's made yet another hard choice that is required when rebuilding a program. False...and false.  He hired the guy so it's not a 'hard choice' but a mistake on his end in he first place; and his job here was not to 'rebuild' our program.  We weren't Arkansas 2019 or anything close to that.

5) I'm not seeing what Harsin is really doing this far into his tenure(and again we are at a point where other coaches were showing momentum by this point) to address the acknowledged deficiences we did have coming into his tenure.  Practically in this forum has been beating the same drum about our offensive line depth-  that Gus didn't recruit it well the last several years and as a result it is a bare bones offensive line room.  Ok, that's a fair point.  So a year and one season later, what has Harsin done to address this?  Where are the solid guys he has found in the portal to slide into OL spots?  Who are the stud O-lineman in this class he is bringing in to restock this position of need?  I'll acknowledge the fact that Harsin didn't inherit a stacked o-line room when he got here, but hells bells we are a year later in the process.....what has he done/doing in this last key year to get things fixed and/or moving in the right direction there?

 

I feel like all the above are pretty objective observations and questions.  I'm not an anti-harsin guy and I certainly hope he gets things turned around from his lackluster first year and gets things moving in the right direction.  But I'm certainly not going to sit back and give him a blank check in terms of time to start doing well.  He didn't take over a situation where that is warranted imo.  And I'm just a nobody/lowly alum who doesn't write the big checks or matter in the end more than any other Auburn grad who is a fan.  I do have season tickets but so do tens of thousands of others....but I think most of the big donors feel a similar way, and aren't going to have a tremendous amount of patience either.  This is a *big* year coming up for Harsin, and he needs to figure out a way for year 2 to be a lot better on the field than year 1.  

 

TOO LONG. 

[Hay Field 101 632]

1 hour ago, Auburninbham said:

 

I don't get this "sometimes you have to tear it down to make it better" nonsense.

When we parted ways with Gus after the 2020 season, we were *not* in need a complete overhaul.

We had a 9-3 regular season(and then lost the bowl game) in 2019 that featured wins over a highly ranked Oregon team as well as Alabama(who was 10-1 going into the Iron Bowl).

That was a *good* season.  Was it great?  No.  Was it the kind of season fans talk fondly about 20 years later like 2004 or 2010 or even 2013?  No.  But newsflash- 9-3 in the sec west with a win over Alabama and a top 10/15 ooc win as well? That's a good year. That's not a year indicative over a complete rebuild.

Now let's look at 2020.  6-4.  That's an all-sec schedule though, and 3 of the losses were to an all time great national champion team(ok), Georgia on the road and top 5 at end of the year Texas A&M.  I'm not saying any loss is acceptable, but when you say "oh they were 6-4" it has to be taken into account that it was an all conference schedule and not only that it was a very tough all conference schedule(with Georgia being the west opponent).

But yeah I get it-  a 6-4 season on the heels of a 9-3 season is not what we strive for at Auburn.  We strive for 2004, 2010, 2013.  So given that, the Gus era had gotten stale and a change was good.

So I definitely will admit that we fired Gus because it had gotten a bit stale and we needed to make a change to strive for bigger and better things.  But that is a LONG way from saying we were in trouble as a program, we had hit rock bottom, we needed a rebuilt, etc.  It's even a long way from saying we were in 'bad shape' when Gus left.  Because we weren't.  We didn't have a Bama/Georgia type loaded roster when Gus exited, but as far as teams who just changed let a coach go, we would have been in better shape than just about any.

This was the opposite of a 2019 Arkansas type situation, where a program really was at rock bottom and needed a complete overhaul.  Harsin instead took over a program in pretty good shape who over the least two years had won 65% of their regular season games with a *tough* schedule(right up there amongst the toughest in the country over that time).

So while I am not anti-Harsin, I also don't get the cheerleading for him at this point when seemingly bad news hits(like Tank leaving).  And I definitely don't get this idea that we as Auburn fans are going to be super patient as he takes us on a long painful rebuild while he tears it down the studs and we experience some losing over the next couple years.....

 

I'm sorry....what?  If Harsin is still losing in *year 3* of his regime, that would be a serious ******* problem for him.  Even next year is a super important year for Harsin to show that he is getting things turned around from a dissapointing first year.  Auburn fans aren't going to be super patient with this guy....he didn't inherit a dumpster fire, or anything close to it.  Did he inherit a team ready made to win the sec?  No, of course not.  But he sure as hell didn't inherit a bad situation relative to most jobs.  

 

And yeah, it's a little concerning that we're just hearing now how Harsin "has to start tearing it down to the studs".  Ummmm....what the hell was the first year?  Was that just a freebie or a write-off?  Auburn fans are willing to give Harsin a year to right the ship before expecting things to be moving in a very positive direction this year, but let's be very clear- THE CLOCK STARTED LAST YEAR.  He doesn't get to come into this year, year 2, and say "ok guys, now we have to start over so don't judge me yet...."   No, it doesn't work that way.  

So all I see to this point is the following:

1) Harsin took over a program that was winning 65% of it's game over the last 2 years(even with an all-sec schedule one of those years), and promptly went 6-6 his first year, and 3 of those victories were ooc garbage games so he was only 3-5 in conference play.  

2) Harsin's recruiting in his second class(but really his first class with him at the helm as the first doesn't count) has been....underwhelming to say the least.  Yes we won't finish #35 of course and we will likely finish around 20th.  But that's not good.  This is usually the class(the first 'real class') where a foundational coach leaves a market in recruiting- thats what Saban, Smart, etc did with this class.  Instead Harsin has the class backpedaling from Gus' classes.  And no I don't want to hear nonsense like "well with those other coaches you're comparing them to classes where signing day was 2 months later".....please, those are excuses.  Even with a little earlier signing day it is a reasonable expectation for a coach to have a big splash recruiting class with this 'first real class'.  Harsin is going to fail at that.

3) We're losing key players in the transfer portal a year into his tenure.  The cheerleaders are saying "bo nix leaving is a good thing because we will get someone like Kedon Slovis who is better anyways".  well putting aside the fact that it's debatable whether  Slovis is better than Nix going forward,  we haven't got Slovis yet.  So lets hold off assuming that we are going to get a top portal guy in the first place.  And while I don't think losing a rb like Tank is an overwhelming loss, it's definately not a negative to some degree.  The general trend of losing key players who weren'tbad apples or bad character guys this far into the tenure is *not good*.

 

4) He's already fired his OC.  *His* OC.  I found it funny how a lot of cheerleaders were writing this off as an example that Harsin is 'cleaning house' and 'gotta tear down the studs'.  Ummm.....*he* drove those studs in in this case!!  It's not like Bobo was forced on Harsin.  It was a very attractive job and Harsin could pick whoever he wanted, and after just one year he's had to fire *his* pick.  Again....that's objectively not a good thing.  And yet some of the cheerleaders on here for Harsin are using this as an example of how he's made yet another hard choice that is required when rebuilding a program. False...and false.  He hired the guy so it's not a 'hard choice' but a mistake on his end in he first place; and his job here was not to 'rebuild' our program.  We weren't Arkansas 2019 or anything close to that.

5) I'm not seeing what Harsin is really doing this far into his tenure(and again we are at a point where other coaches were showing momentum by this point) to address the acknowledged deficiences we did have coming into his tenure.  Practically in this forum has been beating the same drum about our offensive line depth-  that Gus didn't recruit it well the last several years and as a result it is a bare bones offensive line room.  Ok, that's a fair point.  So a year and one season later, what has Harsin done to address this?  Where are the solid guys he has found in the portal to slide into OL spots?  Who are the stud O-lineman in this class he is bringing in to restock this position of need?  I'll acknowledge the fact that Harsin didn't inherit a stacked o-line room when he got here, but hells bells we are a year later in the process.....what has he done/doing in this last key year to get things fixed and/or moving in the right direction there?

 

I feel like all the above are pretty objective observations and questions.  I'm not an anti-harsin guy and I certainly hope he gets things turned around from his lackluster first year and gets things moving in the right direction.  But I'm certainly not going to sit back and give him a blank check in terms of time to start doing well.  He didn't take over a situation where that is warranted imo.  And I'm just a nobody/lowly alum who doesn't write the big checks or matter in the end more than any other Auburn grad who is a fan.  I do have season tickets but so do tens of thousands of others....but I think most of the big donors feel a similar way, and aren't going to have a tremendous amount of patience either.  This is a *big* year coming up for Harsin, and he needs to figure out a way for year 2 to be a lot better on the field than year 1.  

 

I'm sorry what did you just say?

[selias 2,398]

13 minutes ago, boisnumber1 said:

Aint that the truth 😂 But the first little bit let me know I was all good in not reading it 

The first 2 lines said everything I needed to know about the rest of the post.

[autiger88 3,777]

1 hour ago, Auburninbham said:

 

I don't get this "sometimes you have to tear it down to make it better" nonsense.

When we parted ways with Gus after the 2020 season, we were *not* in need a complete overhaul.

We had a 9-3 regular season(and then lost the bowl game) in 2019 that featured wins over a highly ranked Oregon team as well as Alabama(who was 10-1 going into the Iron Bowl).

That was a *good* season.  Was it great?  No.  Was it the kind of season fans talk fondly about 20 years later like 2004 or 2010 or even 2013?  No.  But newsflash- 9-3 in the sec west with a win over Alabama and a top 10/15 ooc win as well? That's a good year. That's not a year indicative over a complete rebuild.

Now let's look at 2020.  6-4.  That's an all-sec schedule though, and 3 of the losses were to an all time great national champion team(ok), Georgia on the road and top 5 at end of the year Texas A&M.  I'm not saying any loss is acceptable, but when you say "oh they were 6-4" it has to be taken into account that it was an all conference schedule and not only that it was a very tough all conference schedule(with Georgia being the west opponent).

But yeah I get it-  a 6-4 season on the heels of a 9-3 season is not what we strive for at Auburn.  We strive for 2004, 2010, 2013.  So given that, the Gus era had gotten stale and a change was good.

So I definitely will admit that we fired Gus because it had gotten a bit stale and we needed to make a change to strive for bigger and better things.  But that is a LONG way from saying we were in trouble as a program, we had hit rock bottom, we needed a rebuilt, etc.  It's even a long way from saying we were in 'bad shape' when Gus left.  Because we weren't.  We didn't have a Bama/Georgia type loaded roster when Gus exited, but as far as teams who just changed let a coach go, we would have been in better shape than just about any.

This was the opposite of a 2019 Arkansas type situation, where a program really was at rock bottom and needed a complete overhaul.  Harsin instead took over a program in pretty good shape who over the least two years had won 65% of their regular season games with a *tough* schedule(right up there amongst the toughest in the country over that time).

So while I am not anti-Harsin, I also don't get the cheerleading for him at this point when seemingly bad news hits(like Tank leaving).  And I definitely don't get this idea that we as Auburn fans are going to be super patient as he takes us on a long painful rebuild while he tears it down the studs and we experience some losing over the next couple years.....

 

I'm sorry....what?  If Harsin is still losing in *year 3* of his regime, that would be a serious ******* problem for him.  Even next year is a super important year for Harsin to show that he is getting things turned around from a dissapointing first year.  Auburn fans aren't going to be super patient with this guy....he didn't inherit a dumpster fire, or anything close to it.  Did he inherit a team ready made to win the sec?  No, of course not.  But he sure as hell didn't inherit a bad situation relative to most jobs.  

 

And yeah, it's a little concerning that we're just hearing now how Harsin "has to start tearing it down to the studs".  Ummmm....what the hell was the first year?  Was that just a freebie or a write-off?  Auburn fans are willing to give Harsin a year to right the ship before expecting things to be moving in a very positive direction this year, but let's be very clear- THE CLOCK STARTED LAST YEAR.  He doesn't get to come into this year, year 2, and say "ok guys, now we have to start over so don't judge me yet...."   No, it doesn't work that way.  

So all I see to this point is the following:

1) Harsin took over a program that was winning 65% of it's game over the last 2 years(even with an all-sec schedule one of those years), and promptly went 6-6 his first year, and 3 of those victories were ooc garbage games so he was only 3-5 in conference play.  

2) Harsin's recruiting in his second class(but really his first class with him at the helm as the first doesn't count) has been....underwhelming to say the least.  Yes we won't finish #35 of course and we will likely finish around 20th.  But that's not good.  This is usually the class(the first 'real class') where a foundational coach leaves a market in recruiting- thats what Saban, Smart, etc did with this class.  Instead Harsin has the class backpedaling from Gus' classes.  And no I don't want to hear nonsense like "well with those other coaches you're comparing them to classes where signing day was 2 months later".....please, those are excuses.  Even with a little earlier signing day it is a reasonable expectation for a coach to have a big splash recruiting class with this 'first real class'.  Harsin is going to fail at that.

3) We're losing key players in the transfer portal a year into his tenure.  The cheerleaders are saying "bo nix leaving is a good thing because we will get someone like Kedon Slovis who is better anyways".  well putting aside the fact that it's debatable whether  Slovis is better than Nix going forward,  we haven't got Slovis yet.  So lets hold off assuming that we are going to get a top portal guy in the first place.  And while I don't think losing a rb like Tank is an overwhelming loss, it's definately not a negative to some degree.  The general trend of losing key players who weren'tbad apples or bad character guys this far into the tenure is *not good*.

 

4) He's already fired his OC.  *His* OC.  I found it funny how a lot of cheerleaders were writing this off as an example that Harsin is 'cleaning house' and 'gotta tear down the studs'.  Ummm.....*he* drove those studs in in this case!!  It's not like Bobo was forced on Harsin.  It was a very attractive job and Harsin could pick whoever he wanted, and after just one year he's had to fire *his* pick.  Again....that's objectively not a good thing.  And yet some of the cheerleaders on here for Harsin are using this as an example of how he's made yet another hard choice that is required when rebuilding a program. False...and false.  He hired the guy so it's not a 'hard choice' but a mistake on his end in he first place; and his job here was not to 'rebuild' our program.  We weren't Arkansas 2019 or anything close to that.

5) I'm not seeing what Harsin is really doing this far into his tenure(and again we are at a point where other coaches were showing momentum by this point) to address the acknowledged deficiences we did have coming into his tenure.  Practically in this forum has been beating the same drum about our offensive line depth-  that Gus didn't recruit it well the last several years and as a result it is a bare bones offensive line room.  Ok, that's a fair point.  So a year and one season later, what has Harsin done to address this?  Where are the solid guys he has found in the portal to slide into OL spots?  Who are the stud O-lineman in this class he is bringing in to restock this position of need?  I'll acknowledge the fact that Harsin didn't inherit a stacked o-line room when he got here, but hells bells we are a year later in the process.....what has he done/doing in this last key year to get things fixed and/or moving in the right direction there?

 

I feel like all the above are pretty objective observations and questions.  I'm not an anti-harsin guy and I certainly hope he gets things turned around from his lackluster first year and gets things moving in the right direction.  But I'm certainly not going to sit back and give him a blank check in terms of time to start doing well.  He didn't take over a situation where that is warranted imo.  And I'm just a nobody/lowly alum who doesn't write the big checks or matter in the end more than any other Auburn grad who is a fan.  I do have season tickets but so do tens of thousands of others....but I think most of the big donors feel a similar way, and aren't going to have a tremendous amount of patience either.  This is a *big* year coming up for Harsin, and he needs to figure out a way for year 2 to be a lot better on the field than year 1.  

 

 

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

1 hour ago, Auburninbham said:

 

I don't get this "sometimes you have to tear it down to make it better" nonsense.

When we parted ways with Gus after the 2020 season, we were *not* in need a complete overhaul.

We had a 9-3 regular season(and then lost the bowl game) in 2019 that featured wins over a highly ranked Oregon team as well as Alabama(who was 10-1 going into the Iron Bowl).

That was a *good* season.  Was it great?  No.  Was it the kind of season fans talk fondly about 20 years later like 2004 or 2010 or even 2013?  No.  But newsflash- 9-3 in the sec west with a win over Alabama and a top 10/15 ooc win as well? That's a good year. That's not a year indicative over a complete rebuild.

Now let's look at 2020.  6-4.  That's an all-sec schedule though, and 3 of the losses were to an all time great national champion team(ok), Georgia on the road and top 5 at end of the year Texas A&M.  I'm not saying any loss is acceptable, but when you say "oh they were 6-4" it has to be taken into account that it was an all conference schedule and not only that it was a very tough all conference schedule(with Georgia being the west opponent).

But yeah I get it-  a 6-4 season on the heels of a 9-3 season is not what we strive for at Auburn.  We strive for 2004, 2010, 2013.  So given that, the Gus era had gotten stale and a change was good.

So I definitely will admit that we fired Gus because it had gotten a bit stale and we needed to make a change to strive for bigger and better things.  But that is a LONG way from saying we were in trouble as a program, we had hit rock bottom, we needed a rebuilt, etc.  It's even a long way from saying we were in 'bad shape' when Gus left.  Because we weren't.  We didn't have a Bama/Georgia type loaded roster when Gus exited, but as far as teams who just changed let a coach go, we would have been in better shape than just about any.

This was the opposite of a 2019 Arkansas type situation, where a program really was at rock bottom and needed a complete overhaul.  Harsin instead took over a program in pretty good shape who over the least two years had won 65% of their regular season games with a *tough* schedule(right up there amongst the toughest in the country over that time).

So while I am not anti-Harsin, I also don't get the cheerleading for him at this point when seemingly bad news hits(like Tank leaving).  And I definitely don't get this idea that we as Auburn fans are going to be super patient as he takes us on a long painful rebuild while he tears it down the studs and we experience some losing over the next couple years.....

 

I'm sorry....what?  If Harsin is still losing in *year 3* of his regime, that would be a serious ******* problem for him.  Even next year is a super important year for Harsin to show that he is getting things turned around from a dissapointing first year.  Auburn fans aren't going to be super patient with this guy....he didn't inherit a dumpster fire, or anything close to it.  Did he inherit a team ready made to win the sec?  No, of course not.  But he sure as hell didn't inherit a bad situation relative to most jobs.  

 

And yeah, it's a little concerning that we're just hearing now how Harsin "has to start tearing it down to the studs".  Ummmm....what the hell was the first year?  Was that just a freebie or a write-off?  Auburn fans are willing to give Harsin a year to right the ship before expecting things to be moving in a very positive direction this year, but let's be very clear- THE CLOCK STARTED LAST YEAR.  He doesn't get to come into this year, year 2, and say "ok guys, now we have to start over so don't judge me yet...."   No, it doesn't work that way.  

So all I see to this point is the following:

1) Harsin took over a program that was winning 65% of it's game over the last 2 years(even with an all-sec schedule one of those years), and promptly went 6-6 his first year, and 3 of those victories were ooc garbage games so he was only 3-5 in conference play.  

2) Harsin's recruiting in his second class(but really his first class with him at the helm as the first doesn't count) has been....underwhelming to say the least.  Yes we won't finish #35 of course and we will likely finish around 20th.  But that's not good.  This is usually the class(the first 'real class') where a foundational coach leaves a market in recruiting- thats what Saban, Smart, etc did with this class.  Instead Harsin has the class backpedaling from Gus' classes.  And no I don't want to hear nonsense like "well with those other coaches you're comparing them to classes where signing day was 2 months later".....please, those are excuses.  Even with a little earlier signing day it is a reasonable expectation for a coach to have a big splash recruiting class with this 'first real class'.  Harsin is going to fail at that.

3) We're losing key players in the transfer portal a year into his tenure.  The cheerleaders are saying "bo nix leaving is a good thing because we will get someone like Kedon Slovis who is better anyways".  well putting aside the fact that it's debatable whether  Slovis is better than Nix going forward,  we haven't got Slovis yet.  So lets hold off assuming that we are going to get a top portal guy in the first place.  And while I don't think losing a rb like Tank is an overwhelming loss, it's definately not a negative to some degree.  The general trend of losing key players who weren'tbad apples or bad character guys this far into the tenure is *not good*.

 

4) He's already fired his OC.  *His* OC.  I found it funny how a lot of cheerleaders were writing this off as an example that Harsin is 'cleaning house' and 'gotta tear down the studs'.  Ummm.....*he* drove those studs in in this case!!  It's not like Bobo was forced on Harsin.  It was a very attractive job and Harsin could pick whoever he wanted, and after just one year he's had to fire *his* pick.  Again....that's objectively not a good thing.  And yet some of the cheerleaders on here for Harsin are using this as an example of how he's made yet another hard choice that is required when rebuilding a program. False...and false.  He hired the guy so it's not a 'hard choice' but a mistake on his end in he first place; and his job here was not to 'rebuild' our program.  We weren't Arkansas 2019 or anything close to that.

5) I'm not seeing what Harsin is really doing this far into his tenure(and again we are at a point where other coaches were showing momentum by this point) to address the acknowledged deficiences we did have coming into his tenure.  Practically in this forum has been beating the same drum about our offensive line depth-  that Gus didn't recruit it well the last several years and as a result it is a bare bones offensive line room.  Ok, that's a fair point.  So a year and one season later, what has Harsin done to address this?  Where are the solid guys he has found in the portal to slide into OL spots?  Who are the stud O-lineman in this class he is bringing in to restock this position of need?  I'll acknowledge the fact that Harsin didn't inherit a stacked o-line room when he got here, but hells bells we are a year later in the process.....what has he done/doing in this last key year to get things fixed and/or moving in the right direction there?

 

I feel like all the above are pretty objective observations and questions.  I'm not an anti-harsin guy and I certainly hope he gets things turned around from his lackluster first year and gets things moving in the right direction.  But I'm certainly not going to sit back and give him a blank check in terms of time to start doing well.  He didn't take over a situation where that is warranted imo.  And I'm just a nobody/lowly alum who doesn't write the big checks or matter in the end more than any other Auburn grad who is a fan.  I do have season tickets but so do tens of thousands of others....but I think most of the big donors feel a similar way, and aren't going to have a tremendous amount of patience either.  This is a *big* year coming up for Harsin, and he needs to figure out a way for year 2 to be a lot better on the field than year 1.  

 

Great poat. Thank you.

[wareagleguy 1,393]

1 hour ago, Auburninbham said:

 

I don't get this "sometimes you have to tear it down to make it better" nonsense.

When we parted ways with Gus after the 2020 season, we were *not* in need a complete overhaul.

We had a 9-3 regular season(and then lost the bowl game) in 2019 that featured wins over a highly ranked Oregon team as well as Alabama(who was 10-1 going into the Iron Bowl).

That was a *good* season.  Was it great?  No.  Was it the kind of season fans talk fondly about 20 years later like 2004 or 2010 or even 2013?  No.  But newsflash- 9-3 in the sec west with a win over Alabama and a top 10/15 ooc win as well? That's a good year. That's not a year indicative over a complete rebuild.

Now let's look at 2020.  6-4.  That's an all-sec schedule though, and 3 of the losses were to an all time great national champion team(ok), Georgia on the road and top 5 at end of the year Texas A&M.  I'm not saying any loss is acceptable, but when you say "oh they were 6-4" it has to be taken into account that it was an all conference schedule and not only that it was a very tough all conference schedule(with Georgia being the west opponent).

But yeah I get it-  a 6-4 season on the heels of a 9-3 season is not what we strive for at Auburn.  We strive for 2004, 2010, 2013.  So given that, the Gus era had gotten stale and a change was good.

So I definitely will admit that we fired Gus because it had gotten a bit stale and we needed to make a change to strive for bigger and better things.  But that is a LONG way from saying we were in trouble as a program, we had hit rock bottom, we needed a rebuilt, etc.  It's even a long way from saying we were in 'bad shape' when Gus left.  Because we weren't.  We didn't have a Bama/Georgia type loaded roster when Gus exited, but as far as teams who just changed let a coach go, we would have been in better shape than just about any.

This was the opposite of a 2019 Arkansas type situation, where a program really was at rock bottom and needed a complete overhaul.  Harsin instead took over a program in pretty good shape who over the least two years had won 65% of their regular season games with a *tough* schedule(right up there amongst the toughest in the country over that time).

So while I am not anti-Harsin, I also don't get the cheerleading for him at this point when seemingly bad news hits(like Tank leaving).  And I definitely don't get this idea that we as Auburn fans are going to be super patient as he takes us on a long painful rebuild while he tears it down the studs and we experience some losing over the next couple years.....

 

I'm sorry....what?  If Harsin is still losing in *year 3* of his regime, that would be a serious ******* problem for him.  Even next year is a super important year for Harsin to show that he is getting things turned around from a dissapointing first year.  Auburn fans aren't going to be super patient with this guy....he didn't inherit a dumpster fire, or anything close to it.  Did he inherit a team ready made to win the sec?  No, of course not.  But he sure as hell didn't inherit a bad situation relative to most jobs.  

 

And yeah, it's a little concerning that we're just hearing now how Harsin "has to start tearing it down to the studs".  Ummmm....what the hell was the first year?  Was that just a freebie or a write-off?  Auburn fans are willing to give Harsin a year to right the ship before expecting things to be moving in a very positive direction this year, but let's be very clear- THE CLOCK STARTED LAST YEAR.  He doesn't get to come into this year, year 2, and say "ok guys, now we have to start over so don't judge me yet...."   No, it doesn't work that way.  

So all I see to this point is the following:

1) Harsin took over a program that was winning 65% of it's game over the last 2 years(even with an all-sec schedule one of those years), and promptly went 6-6 his first year, and 3 of those victories were ooc garbage games so he was only 3-5 in conference play.  

2) Harsin's recruiting in his second class(but really his first class with him at the helm as the first doesn't count) has been....underwhelming to say the least.  Yes we won't finish #35 of course and we will likely finish around 20th.  But that's not good.  This is usually the class(the first 'real class') where a foundational coach leaves a market in recruiting- thats what Saban, Smart, etc did with this class.  Instead Harsin has the class backpedaling from Gus' classes.  And no I don't want to hear nonsense like "well with those other coaches you're comparing them to classes where signing day was 2 months later".....please, those are excuses.  Even with a little earlier signing day it is a reasonable expectation for a coach to have a big splash recruiting class with this 'first real class'.  Harsin is going to fail at that.

3) We're losing key players in the transfer portal a year into his tenure.  The cheerleaders are saying "bo nix leaving is a good thing because we will get someone like Kedon Slovis who is better anyways".  well putting aside the fact that it's debatable whether  Slovis is better than Nix going forward,  we haven't got Slovis yet.  So lets hold off assuming that we are going to get a top portal guy in the first place.  And while I don't think losing a rb like Tank is an overwhelming loss, it's definately not a negative to some degree.  The general trend of losing key players who weren'tbad apples or bad character guys this far into the tenure is *not good*.

 

4) He's already fired his OC.  *His* OC.  I found it funny how a lot of cheerleaders were writing this off as an example that Harsin is 'cleaning house' and 'gotta tear down the studs'.  Ummm.....*he* drove those studs in in this case!!  It's not like Bobo was forced on Harsin.  It was a very attractive job and Harsin could pick whoever he wanted, and after just one year he's had to fire *his* pick.  Again....that's objectively not a good thing.  And yet some of the cheerleaders on here for Harsin are using this as an example of how he's made yet another hard choice that is required when rebuilding a program. False...and false.  He hired the guy so it's not a 'hard choice' but a mistake on his end in he first place; and his job here was not to 'rebuild' our program.  We weren't Arkansas 2019 or anything close to that.

5) I'm not seeing what Harsin is really doing this far into his tenure(and again we are at a point where other coaches were showing momentum by this point) to address the acknowledged deficiences we did have coming into his tenure.  Practically in this forum has been beating the same drum about our offensive line depth-  that Gus didn't recruit it well the last several years and as a result it is a bare bones offensive line room.  Ok, that's a fair point.  So a year and one season later, what has Harsin done to address this?  Where are the solid guys he has found in the portal to slide into OL spots?  Who are the stud O-lineman in this class he is bringing in to restock this position of need?  I'll acknowledge the fact that Harsin didn't inherit a stacked o-line room when he got here, but hells bells we are a year later in the process.....what has he done/doing in this last key year to get things fixed and/or moving in the right direction there?

 

I feel like all the above are pretty objective observations and questions.  I'm not an anti-harsin guy and I certainly hope he gets things turned around from his lackluster first year and gets things moving in the right direction.  But I'm certainly not going to sit back and give him a blank check in terms of time to start doing well.  He didn't take over a situation where that is warranted imo.  And I'm just a nobody/lowly alum who doesn't write the big checks or matter in the end more than any other Auburn grad who is a fan.  I do have season tickets but so do tens of thousands of others....but I think most of the big donors feel a similar way, and aren't going to have a tremendous amount of patience either.  This is a *big* year coming up for Harsin, and he needs to figure out a way for year 2 to be a lot better on the field than year 1.  

 

I only have time to read one, should it be this post or War and Peace?!