Former Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin referenced the latest controversial hit from country singer Jason Aldean, titled “Try That In A Small Town,” in an Instagram story — and felt the wrath of a Tigers fanbase that had no interest in hearing a Boise native talk about life in a small town; especially after leaving a passionate one high and dry with a lack of respect for the job he was paid millions to do.
Try winning ball games pic.twitter.com/rxV0YX7dSa
— Cucker Tarlson (@sloppy_steaks) July 23, 2023
Boise, Idaho 764,718 metropolitan area https://t.co/xaI2CnhOTW
— Justin Lee (@ByJustinLee) July 23, 2023
Couldn’t name five small towns in Alabama if you gave him four of them. https://t.co/yrLSjObaSg
— William Luke Hendrick (@WilliamLH21) July 23, 2023
"He from the north I'm from the south he don't understand me" - Kobe Hudson https://t.co/O6MmfDLrxT
— Mr. Nanners (@nanners_mr) July 23, 2023
He’s also enjoying Auburn’s money way too much. https://t.co/2h1Lwq5PFR
— Heather (@Heather_ishh) July 23, 2023
Aldean himself was clowned for being from Macon, Georgia, a city with a population of 200,000, and gatekeeping what things are like in a small town. But Harsin? A Boise native who showed arrogance when hired to do the most enviable job on the Plains?
Come on now…
Bryan Harsin left the Auburn football roster with ‘imbalance and attrition issues’
Harsin’s legacy to Auburn football fans, reporters, and other observers was that of someone with a bad attitude and work ethic. To ESPN’s Bill Connelly, his legacy was that of leaving the Tigers roster with “imbalance and attrition issues.”
“(Auburn’s) roster had to be spackled together after imbalance and attrition issues,” Connelly wrote of the tall task Hugh Freeze has ahead of him in 2023 to make AU competitive. “Auburn’s 2022 offense could only run, so Freeze brought in Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne and five receiver transfers. The offensive line lost six of last year’s top seven, so he inked four transfers there. The run defense was dreadful, so he signed nine defensive line and linebacker transfers.”
The words used for Harsin’s leftover roster are as harsh as assessments get for college football players at the SEC level. Power Five coaches with worse records get nowhere near the vitriol Harsin gets on a daily basis from Tiger fans.
The bad on-field memories will always persist when it comes to Harsin’s disgracing the orange and blue, but as long as he continues to do things that make Tiger fans’ blood boil, he will live on in infamy in East Central Alabama and abroad.