Auburn football: Barrett Sallee calls Bryan Harsin’s offense “old-school”

Heads were turned during Auburn football’s A-Day spring game on the Plains this afternoon.

The intrasquad scrimmage (that streamed on SEC Network+ at 1 pm central) was the first public coaching appearance of brand new head coach Bryan Harsin, who follows a seven-year stint for Gus Malzahn that ended in his mid-December firing.

It was quite the coming-out party for the Tigers’ new regime, which features almost an entirely fresh set of faces minus a few Malzahn-era holdovers like Cadillac Williams.

With the program split into Team Auburn and Team Tigers, the starter-heavy Team Auburn picked up a thorough 17-3 victory in front of 25,000+ at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Major progress was shown by starting QB Bo Nix, who was able to complete 60% of his passes and found success airing the ball down the sideline in addition to his 29 rushing yards, and Tank Bigsby, who ran over the defense to the tune of over nine yards per carry and scored a touchdown run that saw the secondary trip over itself trying to track the trajectory of the uber-athletic speedster.

CBS Sports’ national college football analyst Barrett Sallee believed that the team’s smash mouth offensive style harkens back to the old school:

"Every first-year coach says that his team is going to play physical and tough. Auburn’s Bryan Harsin clearly means it. The 2021 Tigers running game had much more of a downhill feel instead of the side-to-side eye candy that was a staple in the Gus Malzahn regime. Star Tank Bigsby broke off a 46-yarder up the middle and Shaun Shivers, who was primarily used as a jet sweep specialist a year ago, ran north and south way more than he did in previous years. That’ll be big for the Tigers moving forward. Quarterback Bo Nix has been under pressure since the moment he stepped foot on campus, which has caused him to look like a deer in headlights throughout his first two seasons. If Auburn can establish the running game with a physical offensive line that gets downhill, it’ll make Nix’ job a lot easier than it has been in the past."

We are not going to stop hearing about Gus Malzahn’s antiquated style during his time as the Auburn football HC (since 2013) and OC (under Gene Chizik) unless Dillon Gabriel could sweep the nation off of its feet with explosive performances under center in 2021.

Sallee believes that his running style held Bigsby and Shaun Shivers (who was all over the field Saturday) back…and if that is true, the SEC is in for one scary season this fall.

Assuming the offensive line can give Bo Nix more time to make plays this season, perhaps we will see a more familiar style of offense that will lead to a more familiar result for Auburn football: a NY6 bowl appearance and a 9-10 win season.

War Eagle!