In the aftermath of the Auburn football program handing Bryan Harsin his walking papers, public opinion has by and large broken down into two groups. The first is the “why didn’t this happen months ago?” camp which lost faith in the Boise native following the offseason inquiry. This is the majority of Tiger fans, though others waited until the Penn State embarrassment to hop off the wagon.
There’s another camp, though, that believes Harsin was never given a fair shake by Auburn University’s powerful boosters. This take ignores the fact that Harsin inherited years of top 15 recruiting classes and convinced several talented Gus Malzahn recruits to take to the transfer portal after his first season.
ESPN College Football host Rece Davis is a member of that camp, and that angers Opelika-Auburn News deputy editor Justin Lee — who called out Davis for ignoring the primary culprit of the February inquiry into Harsin’s program: an alleged racist attitude towards many players in the locker room.
Here was Lee’s evisceration of Davis, an alumni of The University of Alabama, for demonizing a program that had reasons to investigate the potentially harmful conduct from Harsin earlier this year:
Alabama graduate @ReceDavis should apologize, because the inquiry into the treatment of Black football players at Auburn, one of whom said Harsin didn't understand them, one of whom said players were treated "like dogs" by Harsin, was not a farce and deserved followup questions. https://t.co/hivshBNkid
— Justin Lee (@ByJustinLee) November 1, 2022
Auburn football doesn’t need to rebuild with the right head coaching hire
Bryan Harsin’s tenure began as a rebuilding period following the COVID-19 half-empty stadium season in 2020 and the slow rollout until things were back to normal once he was instilled as head coach in 2021. Unfortunately, nothing of value was ever built.
The Tigers regressed in November 2021 and then sunk further this season, and now someone new will be tasked with doing what Harsin couldn’t in the aftermath of Gus Malzahn’s firing: building a winning tradition on the Plains in the NIL.
Luckily, it won’t be as hard as it used to be, with the transfer portal now a legitimate means of restocking the talent cupboard every cycle. If Auburn football nails the next hire, it shouldn’t take long until the Tigers win key recruiting battles again.