Paul Finebaum was grim and grave about the Bryan Harsin situation at Auburn during an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic In the Morning on Monday. The former Birmingham radio host was not convinced that the Tigers head coach has done enough to save his job after a double Mizzou choke job on September 24 in the fourth quarter and overtime of a game AU was dead to rights in.
A missed 26-yard field goal with the clock expiring and a fumble at the 1-yard line for Mizzou’s running back is why Zac Etheridge, Cadillac Williams, or someone not already on the staff isn’t the coach at this very moment.
Finebaum spoke with such finality while discussing the situation, even throwing in some dark humor that would make any other SEC fanbase chuckle but make the one situated on the Plains (and elsewhere) sad.
“I was watching that game on a plane at 32,000 feet, which is good in this sense because there’s nowhere to go,” a snarky Finebaum said. Any Tiger fan should simultaneously hate that kind of talk and realize it’s deserving right now.
Here was the rest of his pre-emptive eulogy of Bryan Harsin and his time leading the Auburn football program:
"“I don’t know what I would’ve done had I been in the stadium in the Auburn section or even worse, on the Missouri sideline. Listen, there’s nothing else I can add in terms of the ineptitude, but I just came away really depressed about both programs and the future of both programs. To me, the Bryan Harsin conversation has nowhere to go. It’s over for Bryan Harsin. He’s made no compelling argument to keep his job. You can celebrate a win and scream ‘War Eagle’ guys, but watch his coaching during that game. It was sad.”"
Bryan Harsin’s potential replacements are spoken of more than he is these days
You probably hear more about Deion Sanders and Hugh Freeze — and other unlikely candidates like Bill O’Brien, Pete Golding, or Kevin Steele, the latter of whom Justin Hokanson doesn’t want to talk about — than you do about Bryan Harsin these days.
The reason is as Paul Finebaum said: the conversation has nowhere to go. We know Harsin is toast the next time he loses. We might as well see what the next piece of bread to go into the toaster is — in other words, who gets to sit in a perennially hot seat next on the Plains?