Analyst: Poor ‘alignment’ not why disgraced ex-Auburn coach failed

Poor “alignment” wasn’t the undoing of disgraced ex-Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin that can explain away Gus Malzahn’s firing and the lack of a contingency plan after that according to Opelika-Auburn News editor Justin Lee. Instead, it was just a lack of effort from the Boise native that made him stink.

“To be clear, poor ‘alignment’ would be a reason why Gus got fired too early with no contingency plans in place,” Lee prefaced before saying, “‘Alignment’ is no excuse for Bryan Harsin’s failure at Auburn. He just stunk and didn’t put in effort, plain and simple. Can the season please get here already.” This is congruent with what CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee told AL.com’s Matt Cohen in an interview published on July 27.

“It’s definitely recruiting,” Sallee prefaced before saying, “You know, like I said, the fact that Hugh understands what needs to be done through his time at Ole Miss, that helps. That is something that every program needs. It’s something that Bryan Harsin didn’t care to do. And I think the fact that Hugh was able to do that I think goes to show you know where his mindset is.”

Bryan Harsin’s failures set up Hugh Freeze’s successes with Auburn football

Hugh Freeze, in some ways, has to be thankful for just how poor of a job Harsin did while on the Plains. Obviously, putting the program behind in recruiting did nobody any favors when it comes to on-field results, but the narrative surrounding the disgraced ex-Auburn football head coach is so negative that Freeze already looks like a savior just by leveraging the same resources Malzahn once did.

Of course, Freeze is going above and beyond and it’s his work that is singlehandedly propping up the Tigers on the trail. But Harsin, by virtue of being so incompetent, made the Oxford, Mississippi native look even better by default.