Auburn football: CBS’ Barrett Sallee casts doubt on Bryan Harsin’s debut

With fall drawing closer and closer, anticipation is ramping up for the premiere of the new Auburn football team led by head coach Bryan Harsin. The SEC newcomer will have a lot to prove in his first year, especially with such a critical audience watching him.

So far, Coach Harsin has impressed when it comes to the recruiting and culture aspects of running the Auburn football team. He managed to line up many high-profile visitors for the month of June while establishing a culture predicated on hard work.

However, the big question that remains is this: Will Bryan Harsin be able to produce the results that the Auburn family wants? According to CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee, he won’t, at least not in his first year. Though there are significant improvements being made to the program, Sallee has ranked Auburn’s 2021 schedule as the third hardest in the SEC, a daunting stat for Harsin:

"The Tigers go on the road to Penn State in Week 3 and have road games vs. LSU and Texas A&M — two of the top three teams in the SEC West. On top of those nightmares they also have permanent cross-division rival Georgia one week after the LSU game and, of course, the Iron Bowl to close things out. Even if Auburn is vastly improved in 2021, it’s hard to imagine first-year coach Bryan Harsin’s record reflecting such improvement."

Bryan Harsin could do everything perfectly for the Tigers, but at the end of the day, he still has to face foreboding SEC programs back-to-back without a non-conference break. In terms of numbers, Sallee is telling Tiger fans to set the bar low.

While the odds are not necessarily in Bryan Harsin’s favor on paper, he and his staff have a little time before September to get the kinks ironed out. Let’s just hope that come December things are looking a little better than 6-4.