Auburn football is experiencing a mid-season crisis in the week leading up to their Week 9 October 29, 11 a.m. matchup with Arkansas at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Tar’Varish Dawson, one of the many Class of 2021 prospects that committed to Gus Malzahn but got to the Plains to a Bryan Harsin-coached Tigers, has added his name to the growing list of players to enter the transfer portal here in late October.
On October 26, Dawson announced he would be taking his talents to the transfer portal, following in the footsteps of fellow Malzahn recruits Zykeivous Walker, AD Diamond, and Landen King. Like the rest, a lack of playing time is the primary reason as he pointed out in his transfer announcement:
— Tarvarish Dawson (@TarvarishD) October 26, 2022
With the loss of Dawson, the wide receiver room shrinks even further, and the WR-H position loses the No. 14 nationally-ranked athlete and a second-team all-Florida member from the 2021 recruiting cycle.
Is Bryan Harsin weeding out the bad of Auburn football or destroying the program?
What’s going on behind the scenes with Auburn football could be either a sign of Bryan Harsin getting rid of players who he felt weren’t contributing to a winning culture — that’s how the Boise native tends to spin it, at least — or a locker room mutiny from those with nothing to lose anyway as a result of a non-player friendly program.
Fans seem sold on the latter, and seeing the team lose more games than they win against Power Five competition time and again has made it difficult to view it any other way. A win over Arkansas could certainly calm down the chatter, but the national narrative has gone further away rather than closer for what Harsin needs it to be when the new AD is hired.
Support for Harsin from the Auburn family is gone and only a surprising run to end the season will get it back. A loss to the Hogs may as well be the end of the line for a Harsin era that seemed dead in the water following the LSU, Georgia, and Ole Miss losses before the bye. It still may not be, though.