WJOX-FM host and former Auburn football star Cole Cubelic defended head coach (for now) Bryan Harsin after the most recent wave of transfers took to the portal over the past several days due to a lack of playing time — and in the case of Landon King, the unwillingness for him to play if needed after recently announcing a red shirt.
Zykeivous Walker and AD Diamond also took to the portal over the last several days, bringing the total number of transfers from the Class of 2021 cycle to nine (h/t 247Sports’ Christian Clemente). Lee Hunter, Ahmari Harvey, Dee Davis, Hal Presley, Ian Mathews, Ro Torrence, and Kamal Hadden were the previous defectors.
Obviously, the common college football issue of players recruited by a different coach is evident here. Gus Malzahn, a man with a far different personality than Harsin, was responsible for bringing in most of that group.
And, according to Cubelic, Harsin is not the only coach telling players to leave the program if they can’t provide a legitimate medical reason to wear a redshirt:
He's not wrong & he's not the only coach in the league doing it... https://t.co/hkzcu3LuMg
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 26, 2022
Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin continues to be a lightning rod of controversy
Call Bryan Harsin’s tenure as Auburn football head coach whatever you’d like, but calling it boring would be a bold-faced lie. So Fly War Eagle amends that — call the last two years anything but boring since the Boise native showed up on the Plains.
Harsin survived an inquiry into his program that investigated a possible affair and potential discrimination against certain players, had it used against him on the recruiting trail, and then entered the season with an ongoing quarterback battle. It’s not always been pretty, and frankly hasn’t been since October 2021, but it’s been an emotional roller coaster following Gus Malzahn’s fairly quiet six years in charge.
The last five games of the season don’t figure to boring despite the fact that the only real stakes remaining in 2022 are qualifying for a bowl game and winning rivalry games (Arkansas, Mississippi State) that only down years see the Tigers lose.