Interesting comments from Mike G

[russnagel1 26]

Starting at about the two minute mark Mike G makes some interesting comments about how things were supposed to go concerning the hiring of Austin Davis.

 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

That is interesting. And I agree with him that Harsin was dragged through a witch hunt.
But Austin’s debacle hire is on Harsin. The team’s play is on Harsin. The lack of adjustments is on Harsin. After this weekend he will have a losing record at AU. 
The problem is that there is no going back. For the sake of the program, when you look at recruiting right now we are in dire straits. According to other websites, we do not lead for one player right now. We are sitting at 10 commitments with two months left. We will be Vandy. 

[metafour 4,969]

Mike G. is lost and their takes are absolutely absurd. I really wish these guys would stop trying to sound-off as some sort of authority; they know very little. It's very obvious that they have been colossal Harsin-Homers throughout his entire tenure, so they're still here feebly trying to make excuses for him.

The fact that his entire diatribe starts off with "Auburn is a really hard job" is so insulting. I'm so sick of that false narrative. You have to go all the way back to 1998/1999 to find the last time this school has fielded back to back losing seasons - and that was in the midst of the last season of Bowden and the first season of Tuberville. When was the last time a brand new coach at Auburn posted losing seasons in each of their first two years? Has that ever even happened? And Harsin didn't even inherit a loser; he inherited a roster that had never even posted a losing season.

[aucom96 1,638]

A lot of this speculation over how Harsin was abused presumes that there was no reasonable purpose behind the investigation. All the crap with the girl, yeah... that was uncalled for and unfortunate. But Harsin fired a coach a few games in, had another respected coordinator leave for an arguably lesser job, had accusations from formers players, there was a lot of smoke that this guy was at best a difficult person to work with. 

There was no guarantee Davis would have made any significant difference in what we're seeing. He was not a well seasoned coordinator, he was a project. When he left, Harsin - an offensive coach - hired his close associate to take over that offense. Calzada was his choice. Ashford was his choice. Neither won out over a guy who probably couldn't start at any SEC program outside of maybe Vanderbilt, but the named starter is still sharing reps with one of them. All of this screams poor management. Clearly Harsin can conceive and sell a plan, but his own execution is apparently lacking and some of that has to be attributable to his ability to work with others. 

It just isn't working out. There may be a team that needs a guy like Harsin and will give him the space and time to adjust, but it's not Auburn. Football is not a by-the-way sport almost anywhere in the SEC. You are not going to be able to hide in your office or in the locker room with 4 or 5 years to figure things out, but that's the pace Harsin has been operating at. Davis was not going to make a difference in that anymore than Bobo or anyone else. 

Edited October 6, 2022 by aucom96

[AuCivilEng1 11,045]

I listen to TWR and at one point was even a member, but their inability to see the writing on the wall with Harsin’s ability to coach (STILL), is just baffling. They are loyal to Harsin, because Harsin has given them access to interviews with him and a few staff members. 

[AUAlumnTN 211]

31 minutes ago, aucom96 said:

A lot of this speculation over how Harsin was abused presumes that there was no reasonable purpose behind the investigation. All the crap with the girl, yeah... that was uncalled for and unfortunate. But Harsin fired a coach a few games in, had another respected coordinator leave for an arguably lesser job, had accusations from formers players, there was a lot of smoke that this guy was at best a difficult person to work with. 

There was no guarantee Davis would have made any significant difference in what we're seeing. He was not a well seasoned coordinator, he was a project. When he left, Harsin - an offensive coach - hired his close associate to take over that offense. Calzada was his choice. Ashford was his choice. Neither won out over a guy who probably couldn't start at any SEC program outside of maybe Vanderbilt, but the named starter is still sharing reps with one of them. All of this screams poor management. Clearly Harsin can conceive and sell a plan, but his own execution is apparently lacking and some of that has to be attributable to his ability to work with others. 

It just isn't working out. There may be a team that needs a guy like Harsin and will give him the space and time to adjust, but it's not Auburn. Football is not a by-the-way sport almost anywhere in the SEC. You are not going to be able to hide in your office or in the locker room with 4 or 5 years to figure things out, but that's the pace Harsin has been operating at. Davis was not going to make a difference in that anymore than Bobo or anyone else. 

The history of this conference over the last decade and a half or so has been really clear on a particular point: if you're coaching for a contender and you don't get things moving in the right direction quickly, you're not going to last. The last SEC coach to win the conference without hitting 10 wins in his second full year on the job was Tubs. If you're at a Kentucky or a South Carolina or a Mississippi State, you'll get time to "build the program". Auburn has too many resources, too much brand recognition, and too significant a history (especially recent history) to require that kind of time. If you're really built for this job, it'll show by year two. Bryan Harsin is not built for this job.

[CR 2,447]

14 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I listen to TWR and at one point was even a member, but their inability to see the writing on the wall with Harsin’s ability to coach (STILL), is just baffling. They are loyal to Harsin, because Harsin has given them access to interviews with him and a few staff members. 

ON3 was the same way but reality has started to sink in over there it seems. Now theyre talking about how recruiting has to improve after gushing for 6 months on all the “underrated” 3 stars that this staff had higher than anyone else on their “board”.

[cole256 17,084]

I would say it's a hard job now, but I would also say it's our fault it's hard now. We could have just as easy be a power team right now had we made better decisions

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,813]

45 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I listen to TWR and at one point was even a member, but their inability to see the writing on the wall with Harsin’s ability to coach (STILL), is just baffling. They are loyal to Harsin, because Harsin has given them access to interviews with him and a few staff members. 

They were definitely front and center in blowing sunshine last season (haven’t followed them much since the end of 2021) 

[ThurstontheWelshCorgi 576]

Anytime channels like this get consistent access to players for interviews there is a strong possibility the incoming staff has worked a deal w them for pr purposes. Ive been a little skeptical of war rapports content in terms of objectivity since harsin arrived as a result. I personally like "vernon speaks auburn".

Edited October 6, 2022 by ThurstontheWelshCorgi

[auburnatl1 5,227]

117 mistakes were made on all sides and I never know what to do with the word “fair”. I do think the AU job is more difficult now (even with the new facilities) than in maybe any of our prior eras because BOTH bama and uga are way up - which has decimated our recruiting base. Tuberville survived as long as he did because bama was down and uga was still uga.  Saban came and he was gone before you could say howdy doody. I don’t think in any best/worse case scenario that Harsin had the energy or was a big enough name or talent to change the new reality. He was always going to fail - the embarrassing circular firing squad just accelerated it.  If you want want to change the inertia of our conference right now, we need to knock the hell out of it.  And that was NEVER going to be Harsin.

Edited October 6, 2022 by auburnatl1

[Stephen66 51]

21 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

117 mistakes were made on all sides and I never know what to do with the word “fair”. I do think the AU job is more difficult now (even with the new facilities) than in maybe any of our prior eras because BOTH bama and uga are way up - which has decimated our recruiting base. Tuberville survived as long as he did because bama was down and uga was still uga.  I don’t think in any best/worse case scenario Harsin had the energy or was a big enough name or talent to change that. He was always going to fail - the embarrassing circular firing squad just accelerated it.  If you want want to change the inertia of our conference right now, we need to knock the hell out of it.  And that was NEVER going to be Harsin.

This hire had to be a home run, and it was a hbp

[PoetTiger 1,901]

How would either of you recruit in light of a admin that does not support you, no vote of confidence and the fiasco from February. I know if I was a recruit, Auburn would not be on my list primarily because there is too much instability.

[AUloggerhead 2,267]

One cannot talk about "competing for championships" without addressing the literal elephant in the room:  uat/UGA currently sit at the top of the cfb world & they happen to be AU's traditional rivals.  Along with the rest of the SECW, that means AU consistently winds up on somebody's toughest schedule list.  Now, combine that with AU's history of meddling er, enthusiastic boosters, a depleted roster of maybe 1-deep blue-chip athletes left over from the previous coaching staff and what do you got?  If not the toughest rebuild job, it certainly has to rank near the top.  That's not an excuse for Harsin as he's made plenty of mistakes to place his HC job in jeopardy.  The fact is AU's rebuild job is going to be tough on whomever eventually gets it.  Given what we know, the question is how long is a reasonable timeframe for the new HC to turn AU's program around:  1-2 years?  longer?  How much longer?  

[auburnatl1 5,227]

3 hours ago, PoetTiger said:

How would either of you recruit in light of a admin that does not support you, no vote of confidence and the fiasco from February. I know if I was a recruit, Auburn would not be on my list primarily because there is too much instability.

Fair. My point is that most of our fan base expects a to be in or around the sec mix every year. Delusional or not. That means we have to compete with Bama, and UGA every year (and the rest of sec west hell) and win at least one of them most years. That means we have to be at least in the same zip code as them in recruiting level. And they’ve been WAY ahead of us for years and have starved us of premier talent. It’s a full jump start.  In my opinion Harsin was a “solid” choice on paper but not a game changer. And that’s whats required. Forgetting all the game management frustration - solid was never going to work. Wrong tool for the problem. Yes the AU admin are friggin nuts and they killed whatever chance he might have had. But imo even if the admin wacko thing had never have happened,  in the long term, he really never had a chance anyway. Just my opinion. I’m wrong a lot.

Edited October 6, 2022 by auburnatl1

[e808 3,028]

38 minutes ago, PoetTiger said:

How would either of you recruit in light of a admin that does not support you, no vote of confidence and the fiasco from February. I know if I was a recruit, Auburn would not be on my list primarily because there is too much instability.

One thing u can do is get out and meet people. The fact that u have high school coaches saying they don’t know of him or visited their school says a lot. Another thing that isn’t hard to do is look at the blueprint of what Kirby and Saban does. That right there lets u know u have to work equal to or harder than them. Lastly the botching of decisions in which it has cost Auburn games. There is so much u could speak about on games alone. Those are things that u can control.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

Didn't Harsin say he would be calling the plays with Austin as the OC?

[alexava 6,973]

Most sensible take I have seen. 
 

[Hank2020 3,223]

57 minutes ago, dyehardfanAU said:

Didn't Harsin say he would be calling the plays with Austin as the OC?

Thats what I remember.

[PoetTiger 1,901]

2 hours ago, e808 said:

One thing u can do is get out and meet people. The fact that u have high school coaches saying they don’t know of him or visited their school says a lot. Another thing that isn’t hard to do is look at the blueprint of what Kirby and Saban does. That right there lets u know u have to work equal to or harder than them. Lastly the botching of decisions in which it has cost Auburn games. There is so much u could speak about on games alone. Those are things that u can control.

In a different situation or light I think Harsin would have been the right hire. However with Auburn being super Auburn like…timing was just not right. You had an AD make the hire who was not unilaterally supported, some still on the Gus Bus, etc. You get here and you see meddling and you try and lay down the law, and then all hell breaks loose. Maybe right coach wrong time, or wrong coach at the absolute worst time. Time to move on.

[CAReeves2010 627]

4 hours ago, Stephen66 said:

This hire had to be a home run, and it was a hbp

Soooo.... we're on base? 🙃

[aucanucktiger 1,805]

Yeah this guy's a goob. BOT hired squeeky clean Harsin when nobody had HEARD of NIL so when Bryan spent '21 resisting NIL, the Winter BOT review was no witchhunt, it was a come-to-reality-of-NIL moment, coach.

[Auburn93 582]

Al and uga are good because AU is down. Take some players from them and the balance shifts. We have to hire a shifter, a staff that has its claws in the high schools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Auburn93 582]

Dell Mcgee is the only one I know.

[AUloggerhead 2,267]

4 hours ago, CAReeves2010 said:

Soooo.... we're on base? 🙃

No, the batter was swinging when he was hbp -- we're staying in the box.