Auburn football: Kirby Smart’s opinion on first-year HC Bryan Harsin

It’s Georgia hate week for Auburn football. After the Tigers took care of their first SEC opponent on the road last weekend in Baton Rouge with a 24-19 win over LSU, they now must prepare to face the #2 team in the country this Saturday.

The Dawgs’ head coach Kirby Smart gave plenty of credit to Auburn football in his media press conference on Monday, per Dawgs 247. Smart mentioned how tough a Death Valley win is, and credited Jordan-Hare Stadium as one of the toughest environments in CFB.

There will be some familiar faces on the Auburn sideline for Smart as both offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and offensive line coach Will Friend previously coached at UGA. Smart says he sees similarities in what Bobo has done before, which could potentially spell trouble for the Tigers’ offense.

On the other hand, Smart credited Bryan Harsin for creating a culture that his players have bought into, and he believes that the Tigers have a really good football team, per Dawg Post:

"Coach (Bryan) Harsin does a really great job. He’s got a really good staff. Those kids have bought into their staff and done a tremendous job—they’ve got one loss from a Top 10 team on the road. And other than that, they played really good football. That game was tough and physical, and that was a tough environment to go into. We know our guys are getting ready to go into a very tough environment—which playing at Auburn is probably one of the toughest places to play in the SEC—their crowd fan base does a tremendous job with those elements."

So far this season the Dawgs are allowing only 4.3 points and 177.8 yards per game from their opponents on average, topping the league. Bo Nix will have to cook up the same sort of elite plays from Death Valley if the Tigers want to pull off a second SEC win at home this weekend.