ESPN analyst dissects next steps for Bryan Harsin to right ship at Auburn

Now that Bryan Harsin is staying at Auburn, the question is what’s next for him and the program. ESPN analyst Booger McFarland joined The Paul Finebaum Show to explain how Harsin can win the team’s trust back.

McFarland told Finebaum Harsin’s path to moving on is by simply addressing his team to address everything that happened. If he does that, that’ll help grease the skids as he tries to move on from a tumultuous 10 days earlier this month.

“I think the easiest way, Paul, is really simple,” McFarland told Finebaum. “You walk in your team meeting and you say, ‘Hey, guys, I made some mistakes. I did some things I probably shouldn’t have done.’

“You see, Paul, football is really just a microcosm of life, and we are a second-chance country in America. We’ve seen people do things way worse than what Bryan Harsin’s accused of being done and they’ve survived. So he’s got to walk into his team meeting room and regardless of whether he thinks he’s done something wrong or not, the perception is he has. So you walk into your team meeting [and] you say, ‘Hey guys, I have failed you. I have said the wrong things, I have talked to you the wrong way, I have treated you the wrong way. I apologize, I’ll do better.'”

Booger McFarland: ‘If [Harsin] doesn’t admit he’s got a problem he will never, ever make it at Auburn’

McFarland added Harsin almost has to own up to things. He thinks not only would the players understand, but even others at Auburn would give the second-year head coach another chance after this offseason.

“If he doesn’t admit he’s got a problem, he will never, ever make it at Auburn,” McFarland said. “But if he wants to recover and become a successful coach that can win a national championship at Auburn, it’s really simple. You fall on the sword. … But if you go in there with a hard heat, Paul, it’s usually not going to end well.”

However, if he doesn’t do that, Auburn might be in for more reporting from insiders about Harsin’s job status and the future of the program.

“If he can’t do that, Paul, we’ll be having more policies and we’ll have Pete Thamel and Bruce Feldman snooping around Auburn for the next six months,” McFarland said. “Because at some point, it won’t be if he’s going to be fired. It’ll be when.”