10/13/22 Auburn Articles

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Greg McElroy explains the circumstances behind the timing of Bryan Harsin leaving Auburn

Keith Farner

2-3 minutes

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Greg McElroy is well aware of the perception around Bryan Harsin at Auburn, and admitted in the latest episode of his “Always College Football” podcast that Harsin is likely the next coach to be fired, at least that’s the consensus around college football.

There’s one major hold up about that, though. McElroy doesn’t believe there’s an interim coach on the staff.

“In order to make a move on a head coach,” McElroy said, “you must first understand who the interim’s going to be. Who on Auburn’s staff is capable of being an interim coach.”

McElroy then shared either the lack of experience, or struggles in an area of the team where it makes it difficult to choose any of several assistants to address the team, and run practices.

McElroy mentioned Cadillac Williams, Eric Kiesau and Jeff Schmedding but had issues with all of them.

“It’s not like they have a guy that’s like, for sure he can take over that he can run the team at this point,” McElroy said. “I have heard that people have said it’s likely he finishes the season.”

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Lane Kiffin Makes His Opinion On Auburn Extremely Clear

Hunter Hodies

2 minutes

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OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI - SEPTEMBER 03: head coach Lane Kiffin of the Mississippi Rebels during the game against the Troy Trojans at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on September 03, 2022 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)

Justin Ford/Getty Images

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin isn't taking Auburn lightly heading into this weekend. 

The Tigers are currently 3-3 through their first six games, but Kiffin doesn't care. He thinks that they're still a talented team and that his squad will have their hands full when they go up against them.

'"We've struggled against Auburn. They're a very talented team that we know will come to play. We'll have our hands full," Kiffin said.

Kiffin wasn't kidding when he said that the Rebels have struggled against the Tigers. They've lost the last six in this series and haven't beaten them since 2015. They've also lost 11 of 14 against them dating back to 2008.

Even though history hasn't been kind to the Rebels in this series, they look poised to win this year's contest. They're currently the No. 9 team in the country with a 6-0 record and have scored 20+ points in all six games. 

Meanwhile, the Tigers haven't looked good in their first six games which has led to a lot of speculation that head coach Bryan Harsin could be on his way out. 

Kickoff for this contest will be at Noon ET on Oct. 15.  

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Bryan Harsin shares how he stays motivated amid a rough start

Updated: Oct. 12, 2022, 5:21 p.m.|Published: Oct. 12, 2022, 4:01 p.m.

3-4 minutes

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An Auburn series gone wrong: Bryan Harsin's reaction to every play

By

• Nubyjas Wilborn | nwilborn@al.com

Auburn (3-3, 1-2 SEC) heads into Saturday’s (11 am CT) matchup against No. 9 Ole Miss (6-0, 2-0 SEC) seeking to end a two-game losing streak in conference play and keep alive a six-year winning streak against the Rebels. Head coach Bryan Harsin’s squad won its last game against a ranked opponent when the team downed Ole Miss last Halloween weekend at Jordan-Hare.

Auburn was 6-2 with a 3-1 record in Southeastern Conference play, with wins against LSU, Arkansas, and Ole Miss while carrying a #18 ranking. The Tigers are 1-6 in SEC contests since the win against LSU, with losses against Texas A&M, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and the Iron Bowl against Alabama last season.

This year the Tigers are 1-2 in conference action and would likely be 0-3 in the SEC if not for a miraculous bounce on a fumble in the end zone by Missouri running back Nathaniel Peat. Harsin came to Auburn with a 69-19 record as Boise State’s head coach.

Read More Auburn Football: Bryan Harsin updates recovery of QB T.J. Finley: ‘He’s getting better’

Watch Bryan Harsin react to Robby Ashford’s fumble against Georgia

Robby Ashford learns tough lessons from the 42-10 Georgia loss

The former Broncos’ quarterback won three Mountain West conference titles as his alma mater. He also went 7-5 at Arkansas State in 2013 before Boise hired him for the 2014 season.

Harsin didn’t leave the comforts of his hometown to go 9-10 through 19 games into his second year as the Tigers’ head coach. Alas, that’s where he is with his squad as a 13.5-point underdog against a hot Ole Miss team at Vaught Hemmingway Stadium, where Auburn is 13-2.

“We’re coaching football here and trying to develop a football team,” Harsin said. “We’re trying to develop people, and we’re trying to grow these people while they’re here in our program. At the end of the week, we know the result will be whatever happens in the game, and we want that result to be in our favor.”

How does one stay engaged when they aren’t used to losing and are on the hot seat?

“It’s not that complicated for me,” Harsin said via teleconference. “I try to focus on the things I can control. Control the things you can manage and continue to enjoy the fact that you get the chance to play or coach football. That never goes away; there’s a reason why we do what we do. We love what we do.”

Like most coaches these days, Harsin regularly preaches about going 1-0 each week and focusing on getting one-percent better every day. Those sayings sound great when you’re winning. However, when a team is treading water, it might ring hollow.

Harsin seems committed to finding a solution to Auburn’s problems on the football field.

What we’re doing and what we have the opportunity to do,” Harsin said. “I haven’t lost love for that and appreciation for the fact that we get to go out there and bring people together. I want to help these young men grow in their lives. We have a job responsibility, but there’s a bigger purpose in everything we do. That’s what gets me out of bed every single morning.”

Nubyjas Wilborn covers Auburn for Alabama Media Group.

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Does Auburn’s offense have an identity crisis at season’s halfway point?

Published: Oct. 12, 2022, 7:10 a.m.

6-8 minutes

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Auburn’s offense is in the middle of an identity crisis.

The Tigers entered the season wanting to build out their offense from a strong run game, centered on preseason All-SEC running back Tank Bigsby, but that ground game has struggled to get going midway through the season. The passing attack, meanwhile, has been sporadic — while also dealing with an injury to season-opening starting quarterback T.J. Finley, as well as injuries across the offensive line.

The results have not been pretty, and they’ve left second-year coach Bryan Harsin searching for answers, and for hope as his team embarks on the second half of its schedule this weekend with a trip to Oxford, Miss., to take on No. 9 Ole Miss (11 a.m. on ESPN).

Read more Auburn football: Auburn’s poor run-blocking has Tank Bigsby mired in mediocrity

The pressing issue Auburn’s offense must resolve against Ole Miss

Goodman: Bryan Harsin proving Doug Barfield wasn’t so bad

“I think the identity right now, we want to be balanced,” Harsin said Monday. “We want to run the ball, throw the ball. We want the play-action off some of the run game. We want to be able to get out on the perimeter and still be firm and be able to run downhill, inside the tackles, and really try to be balanced as much as we can. Utilize our personnel.

“So, that hasn’t changed. Have we been very good at that at this point? Are we where we want to be right now? We’re not. But that’s what our identity is.”

Through the first half of the season, Auburn ranks last in the SEC and toward the bottom of FBS in several offensive categories: scoring (20.3 points per game), third-down conversion rate (32.9 percent), passing efficiency (113.77), completion rate (55.2 percent), passing touchdowns (five) and total touchdowns (15). The Tigers are also 13th in the SEC in yards per play (5.56, just ahead of Missouri’s 5.52), 11th in passing offense (218.8 yards per game), 10th in yards per pass attempt (7.3), 10th in rushing offense (148.3 yards per game) and 13th in yards per carry (4.12).

Auburn has had to adjust its offense in recent weeks following the shoulder injury Finley sustained against Penn State, tailoring the gameplan to better suit the skillset of Robby Ashford. It has also had to navigate injuries along the offensive line — first losing starting center Nick Brahms before the start of the season, then losing his replacement, Tate Johnson, to an elbow injury; Alec Jackson and Austin Troxell also both sustained injuries during Auburn’s loss to Georgia.

“Injuries happen, unfortunately,” Harsin said. “Again, that’s where your depth comes in. You want to have really good depth. That’s why you’re building your team every year. Most of the time, you’re losing a quarter of your team, you’re bringing a quarter of it in, right? In the middle is where your depth is at—your starters and maybe some of your young guys. So, your backups have got to be ready to play. They’ve got to execute the gameplan.

“You can’t really pull back in the middle of a game. You’ve got to keep pushing forward.”

Auburn hasn’t helped its own cause offensively, with negative plays (36 tackles for loss, 13 sacks allowed), fumbles (an FBS-leading 16 total, with five resulting in turnovers) and penalties that have placed the offense behind the chains and often put itself in difficult down-and-distances. In its four games against Power 5 competition, Auburn’s average third-down distance to gain has been 9.43 yards.

As a result, Auburn has struggled to sustain drives and keep its offense on the field, punting 24 times over its last four games.

“What we put together each week — you don’t get to every single play,” Harsin said. “Sometimes the game changes, and you don’t get to all the plays you have in there. You don’t get to every single thing that you wanted to get to, because maybe you’re not in that field position. You’re not in that down-and-distance. You can bump it up, but you’re really game-planning that for that moment. That’s where sustaining drives, that’s where getting more plays, that’s where staying on the field is going to allow us to get more into that rhythm.”

The closest semblance of Harsin’s desired offensive identity that he has seen from his team came early on in Auburn’s loss to LSU two weeks ago. Auburn put together two impressive touchdown drives in the first half of its eventual 21-17 loss, including a six-play, 69-yard drive on the game’s opening possession.

On that drive, Auburn had a 4-yard run on a sweep to the perimeter by Ja’Varrius Johnson, followed by a third-down conversion from Ashford to Koy Moore for 10 yards. Tank Bigsby picked up 2 yards up the middle, and then after an incomplete pass, Ashford found Johnson on a deep ball for a 53-yard touchdown pass.

Auburn’s second touchdown drive was even more impressive on paper, as it went 99 yards on six plays while using up just under three minutes of clock, despite the ground game sputtering a bit. Ashford completed passes of 20, 61 and 18 yards on the drive while extending some plays with his legs. The 61-yarder got running back Jarquez Hunter involved in the passing game, and Ashford capped the drive with the 18-yard touchdown pass to freshman Camden Brown.

Auburn didn’t produce another touchdown against LSU after that, but the team still moved the ball more successfully than it has since its season-opener against FCS opponent Mercer, totaling 438 yards of offense and averaging 6.26 yards per play while generating more chunk plays through the air.

“Some of those drives — that’s what you want it to look like,” Harsin said. “I think we want to continue that.”

It’s on Harsin and his staff to adjust and tinker with the gameplan to best accentuate the ability of its playmakers — guys like Ashford, Bigsby, Hunter and Johnson — in order to better establish the team’s preferred offensive identity. Until that happens, Auburn will continue to totter offensively in search of answers.

“We’re still working on building that identity,” Harsin said. “We have the vision for it. We’ve got to actually do it.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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many of you are interested in coach freeze. here is him being introduced to the ol miss football team. it is very impressive. make up your own minds i just thought this video lets us see the potential he could bring if he comes.

 

[aucom96 1,640]

Thanks for the links. 

- If we keep Harsin as a lame duck, the results will be worse than a poorly prepared interim. We already are clearly unprepared to compete against the better SEC competition and that's most of what's left on our schedule. 

- I have a bad feeling Hugh Freeze has peaked in the SEC. He would be an improvement on Harsin, but I fear he'd be about on par with another Gus tenure. 

- Who we hire as AD will say a lot about where this program is headed. And if the coaching hire precedes that, that hire will likely indicate where we go with the AD. 

[80Tiger 904]

I think the article with Greg M. makes an excellent point about there not being an interim on staff. I know people mention Cadillac, but remember he came to AU from high school coaching and pretty sure he has no HC experience at any level. The coordinators are Boise guys, just don't see their heart being in it and Hillard has limited college experience.

[meh130 1,054]

2 hours ago, 80Tiger said:

I think the article with Greg M. makes an excellent point about there not being an interim on staff. I know people mention Cadillac, but remember he came to AU from high school coaching and pretty sure he has no HC experience at any level. The coordinators are Boise guys, just don't see their heart being in it and Hillard has limited college experience.

Roc Bellantoni has the experience to be an interim. He has been an interim HC before, albeit at the FCS level. He has over 20 years of college coaching and staff experience. He has been a DC before as well.

[Old fan 47 775]

5 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

many of you are interested in coach freeze. here is him being introduced to the ol miss football team. it is very impressive. make up your own minds i just thought this video lets us see the potential he could bring if he comes.

 

I for one just don’t want Freeze. Like it has been stated before on here, I think he is Gus 2.0. Seems like a lot of sites I look at have him already named as the next HC. I just don’t see him as the fixer for the program, but of course with AU, nothings shocking.