Paul Finebaum praises Auburn, Bryan Harsin after dominant season opener

ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum sang high praise for first-year head coach Bryan Harsin and Auburn, after the Tigers pulled off a dominating win over Akron in their season opener, winning 60-10.

“I don’t want to read too much into big scoring from schools like Auburn and others, but I do think it was nice to see a couple of schools look alive again,” Finebaum said Monday morning during his weekly appearance on WJOX in Birmingham. “[But] forget the competition; it did look like there was a plan in place, and I’m not sure I saw that a year ago.”

Akron had absolutely no answer for Auburn’s starters: quarterback Bo Nix was nearly perfect on the day, completing 20 of 22 pass attempts for 275 passing yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Nix also added three rushes for 32 yards and finished with a 96.6 quarterback rating.

Auburn’s rushing attack was as potent as can be; starting running back Tank Bigsby, a sophomore that won SEC Freshman of the Year honors last year with 834 rushing yards (fifth-most in the SEC), had a stellar season opener: he needed just 13 rushing attempts to tally 119 rushing yards and two touchdowns. True freshman Jarquez Hunter, who’s third-in-line behind Bigsby and Shaun Shivers, entered in the third quarter and put up 110 rushing yards and a touchdown on just nine carries. Hunter became Auburn’s first true freshman to post a 100-yard rushing performance in a season opener since Onterio McCalebb in 2009.

Just a week ago, Harsin on Aug. 30 addressed what would make for a successful Week 1 in his debut at Auburn.

“Yeah, that’s a tough question,” Harsin said, when asked what would make him happy with Auburn’s season opener. “I think the No. 1 is that we had a successful game, we won the game. But really, right now, our focus is how do we prepare ourselves to have a good week of practice. I don’t want to put any predictions on the game only because I have no idea what we’re capable of doing this week just as far as how our focus goes and how we come out in practice.”

Surely, Harsin is pleased with Auburn’s 60-10 victory.

An eventful preseason

Harsin and his coaching staff had had an eventful offseason leading up to Auburn’s first game against Akron, one that saw Harsin test positive for COVID-19 and draw criticism for his handling of vaccinations.

“As we have navigated through the pandemic, contingency plans have been in place should a situation like this arise,” Harsin said, in part, after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

Following criticism regarding his handling of Auburn’s vaccinations, Harsin again addressed the media to shoot down the rumor. While still quarantining at home, Harsin over Zoom said any mention of his anti-vaccine viewpoint is untrue.

“Let me be clear,” Harsin said, continuing, “I am not anti-vaccine and any narrative along those lines is misinformed.”

Amidst Harsin’s bout with COVID, Auburn’s first-year defensive coordinator Derek Mason tested positive for COVID-19, too, prompting Mason to send a lengthy statement on Twitter.