College football insider updates timeline on Bryan Harsin decision

For a program that deals with a lot of crazy, this might take the cake for the Auburn Tigers. Bryan Harsin is currently in limbo, with university officials still mulling over whether or not to fire the head coach after just one season.

Amid all of the chaos, ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel went on The Paul Finebaum Show to discuss. He provided an updated timeline Auburn and Harsin could be working with as a move could be coming before the end of the week.

“That’s the variable that is getting bandied back and forth and nobody has a good feel for,” Thamel said. “There is an SEC coaches meeting on Thursday in Birmingham and the head coaches of the SEC will be attending in person. There are plenty of subplots without this but you would think Auburn wouldn’t want Bryan Harsin to go to that meeting with all of this swirling around. You would think there would be some type of a decision, one way or another, before then. He’s scheduled to return from his vacation out of the country on Wednesday.

“So, those are sort of some of the things lined up. I don’t know if you can make a move on a coach without talking to him in person, addressing him in person. I guess you can — there’s nothing legally against it. This is an awkward situation. Every day that passes, it gets more awkward and I would think a decision comes sometime in the next 48 hours, Paul. But it’s Auburn so you never know.”

Auburn releases statement about Bryan Harsin

Auburn last provided an update on where they stood in the situation on Monday morning. They said they are still in the process of getting information and trying to move “swiftly” to make a decision.

“The Auburn administration is judiciously collecting information from a variety of perspectives, including our student-athletes, and moving swiftly to understand any issues in accordance with university policies and procedures,” Auburn said in a release. “Decisions regarding the future of Auburn and its athletics programs, as always, are made in the interests of our great university and in fairness to all concerned. We do not make institutional decisions based on social media posts or media headlines.”

Auburn began the season 6-2 but limped to the finish line, losing all four of its final regular-season games to Texas A&M, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Alabama. The Tigers then went to the Birmingham Bowl against Houston, but fell short and suffered the program’s first losing record since 2012.