Bryan Harsin reflects on Auburn's season, explains how 'attitude' change can help

Auburn’s season ended in a disappointing Birmingham Bowl that seemed like a reflection of Bryan Harsin’s entire first year at the helm: the Tigers at one point looked poised to finish on top, but they ultimately broke down when it mattered most, falling to 6-7 on the year.

Houston jumped out to a 10-3 lead at halftime, despite a valiant second-quarter effort from Derek Mason’s Auburn defense, and Harsin’s offense — set to receive to start the second half — did not look to be in a terrible place. Surely enough, a third-quarter field goal and touchdown later, and the Tigers had taken a 13-10 lead, now firmly in the driver’s seat against Houston. But the Cougars managed to string together a clinical eight-play, 80-yard drive in crunch time, scoring a touchdown and leaving Auburn just three minutes to respond, trailing 17-13.

Just like the Iron Bowl, however, they were unable to do that.

“I’m still not going to assess this season yet until you actually have the chance to go back and truly dive into what did you learn,” Harsin said after the heartbreaking bowl loss. “That’s what you do, you dive into what did you learn from the year, then you go back and evaluate every single thing. As far as our football program goes, I think there’s a lot of things that we learned this year that we know we have to be better at.”

Quarterbacking is likely on the to-do list for Harsin, as the Auburn Tigers sure looked in need of improvement there. Bo Nix, who missed the last two regular-season games and bowl game due to injury, is transferring to Oregon. Now, Harsin and the Tigers have to replace their three-year starter, and it remains unclear whether 6-foot-7, 246-pound LSU transfer TJ Finley is the answer. Finley wasn’t perfect against Houston, completing 51 percent of his passes for 227 yards and a touchdown, but Harsin said there are far more areas to improve upon than under center.

In fact, Harsin went so far as to say the mentality — that of the coaches and players — has to improve in order for Auburn to reach its end goal. The attitude this year, he said, was a problem.

“I told those guys that I learned more this season than any year I’ve played or coached. So that’s motivating going into the offseason. (We know) these are the things we can fix. And they’re very fixable. That’s the best part,” Harsin said. “There are some things as far as an attitude and a mentality that we do need to fix. Not just within our team, just our program. And we’re here to do that. That’s the challenge.”

Perhaps Auburn’s mentality stirred frustration down the stretch of Harsin’s first season at the helm. After a good start and top-25 ranking, the Tigers’ descent began on Nov. 6 with a 20-3 loss to Texas A&M. Finally, it ended on Tuesday with a 17-13 Birmingham Bowl loss to Houston, Auburn’s fifth consecutive loss to end the year.

“Nobody is going to go in there and hang their head and say this is how it is. We’re going to change it, we’re going to fix it and we’re going to get better. At the end of the day, there is no Plan B. There’s Plan A. And we’re here to make this work,” Harsin said. “We’ve got a staff and group of players that are all willing to do whatever it takes to make it work.”