Mel Kiper didn't mince words describing Bo Nix's time with Gus Malzahn (in 2019 and 2020) and Bryan Harsin's (in 2021) Auburn football program: things just didn't work out on the Plains for the second generation signal-caller.
“Bo Nix has started a ton of games at Auburn and Oregon, battling through adversity at Auburn," Kiper said (h/t On3). "His dad was a quarterback there. He was a guy that was a highly-recruited kid. Goes to Auburn, supposed to be the guy and it didn’t work out there, even though he had some games at Auburn where he was really impressive. It didn’t work out there."
The only case for Nix not working out in Auburn from an on-field standpoint was if you had championship expectations for the Tigers with the Pinson product under center from the jump. In his first season on the Plains, he threw 16 touchdowns to six interceptions, upset Alabama in a high-scoring Iron Bowl, and had three "dud" showings against Oregon, Florida, and LSU; the first school of which he defeated and the latter which won the national championship.
Auburn beats South Carolina in 2020, and the Tigers are 7-3 that year and likely never fire Malzahn for Harsin. In 2021, Nix had AU in the College Football Playoff's top 15 in the rankings during the month of November.
From an off-field standpoint, though, Kiper's statement is fair.
Bo Nix was 'miserable' playing for Bryan Harsin's Auburn football program in 2021
Not even getting into the complaints from a section of the fanbase who preferred TJ Finley to him in his final season at AU, Nix's Tigers tenure did undoubtedly not work out due to his misery playing under Harsin in 2021.
"Last year, I was just kind of over it," Nix said in 2022 to CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd. "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.”
That his career took off at Oregon validates Kiper's sentiment.