Auburn should’ve fired disgraced ex-HC to keep Heisman leader

Auburn football’s decision to keep Bryan Harsin after the 2021 season ultimately set the program back for years to come. During his short time on the Plains, Harsin didn’t prioritize recruiting; aka the way a college football program can remain competitive, especially in the SEC.

Ultimately, Harsin’s biggest impact on the program, for worse or for the absolute worst, was that he made Auburn legacy signal-caller and current Heisman candidate Bo Nix leave the program for Oregon due to being “miserable.”

“Last year, I was just kind of over it,” Nix said to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd in October 22. “Each week it was something else. There was, quite frankly, nothing I could do about it. I just remember kind of being miserable. It wasn’t fun anymore.”

The Pinson native, who now has Oregon as a top team in the country, walked out of the door because of how Harsin made him feel. Auburn should have done everything in its power to keep Nix — and that should’ve included firing the Boise native to keep Nix in orange and blue.

Auburn football would be where Oregon is if Bo Nix had stayed at AU

Auburn is making respectable strides toward a winning record in Hugh Freeze’s first year, but if they had someone like Nix under center, Auburn could have been one of the top teams in the country; likely being a top contender in 2022 and 2023 had Freeze made the same jump.

Harsin did not provide enough for AU to be kept around regardless of how things turned out with Nix, as we’ve come to learn, but once there was an inkling that the team’s star quarterback was feeling unhappy and wanted to leave, the decision to relieve Harsin of his duties should have happened immediately.

If that would’ve happened, perhaps Auburn would’ve been where Oregon is in 2023.