Auburn's embattled head coach Bryan Harsin comes out fighting but is it too little, too late?

ATLANTA — On the final morning of SEC Media Days, Bryan Harsin walked to the podium Thursday and then thunder struck. 

It was impeccable timing. Auburn’s embattled head coach had a loud, piercing message to send himself. 

After surviving a palace coup on The Plains where angry donors attempted to get him fired in February following a disappointing 7-6 Year 1 — including five straight losses to end the season — and a poor showing on the recruiting trail, Harsin addressed “the gorilla in the room.”

“There was an inquiry,” he opened, not mentioning how he was vacationing in Mexico at the time when the Tigers’ university opened a ridiculous investigation into Harsin’s coaching and character. With social media flooded with salacious rumors questioning his integrity.

“It was uncomfortable. It was unfounded. It presented an opportunity for people to personally attack me, my family, and also our program.  

“And it didn’t work.”

For now. 

Harsin, with full-force and big-chested bravado, delivered the perfect punchline aimed at a group of influential Auburn boosters who still want him gone. They still might get the last laugh anyways, though. 

That $18 million buyout the Tigers were too cheap to pay this spring goes down later this fall, so there’s little guarantee that Bryan Harsin will be back at SEC Media Days in 2023. 

Can Bryan Harsin win enough — on Saturdays and on the recruiting trail — to survive Year 2 at Auburn?

The Tigers’ second-year head coach faces a near-impossible task of proving 2021 was an outlier and that he can recruit at a requisite level to compete with rivals Alabama and Georgia. 

Considering Auburn’s schedule, the former will be tough.

The Tigers saw 19 players, including some key defensive linemen and starting quarterback Bo Nix, leave the program this offseason. They have new coordinators on both sides of the ball. They lack talent on the perimeter and depth on defense. Oh, and they face six preseason Top 25 teams, including an early home date with Penn State. Auburn was picked to finish last in the SEC West in the preseason poll released Friday.

Meanwhile, the Tigers’ complete lack of juice on the recruiting trail, the latter — beating the Tide and Bulldogs for Top 100 prospects — looks impossible considering Harsin has been kneecapped in the last six month. 

“We’ve told recruits: Watch,” Bryan Harsin said.

“We got to go out there and play. That’s the beauty of what we get a chance to do every Saturday, all right? I think the ones that have been on campus, they see the energy. The vibe, how the players are responding, coaches are connecting, everything that we’re doing.”

That sounds nice, but where are the results?

In perhaps the best year of prospects ever produced in the Yellowhammer State (19 recruits are ranked at least 4-stars), Auburn has just two commits from Alabama. The Tigers’ class ranks last in the SEC. 

That’s just added fuel for a fire ready to burn again. 

Harsin survived an ugly smear campaign, but the tangible reasons some around the Tigers’ program want him ousted remain real: The results just aren’t there. 

The only way he’s back at SEC Media Days again next summer is if his football team — and his staff on the recruiting trail — fight with as much gusto as he showed Thursday. 

It was clear talking to Auburn’s three player representatives in Atlanta — tailback Tank Bigsby, tight end John Samuel Shenker and pass rusher Derick Hall — that a wild week in February did seem to truly galvanize Auburn’s football team. They’ve rallied around their much-maligned head coach. Many Tigers fans have, too. 

Our. Damn. Coach.

📸 @SEC #WarEagle🦅 | #SECMD22 pic.twitter.com/QAUp1fSWET

— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) July 21, 2022

Hall and Shenker were among eight Tigers players who went to Auburn’s administration back in February to fight on Harsin’s behalf. 

Bryan Harsin called the chaos a “silver lining,” believing the adversity brought the most out a team that need more connection and leadership. 

“A switch was flipped,” Shenker said. 

“It caught us all off guard,” Hall told On3. “We come out of a workout and here’s all this stuff and we’re like, ‘What the heck?’ 

“We want him here. … The attitude change has been tremendous. It brought us really, really close together.”

While many of his teammates bolted the program this offseason, Hall, second in the SEC in sacks a year ago, had zero thoughts of leaving Auburn. 

“I love Auburn. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side,” he said.  

Bigsby, who did flirt with the idea of transferring, agreed with Hall’s ultimate assessment, saying, “I looked back at why I first came to Auburn. Me leaving, it would be like I’m running away from something. I told myself I can’t run forever. I made the right decision (to stay). That whole situation brought us closer. It brought us closer as a team and as a family.”

That’s not nothing, but is it enough to quell a group of insurrectionists who still want Harsin gone?

Probably not. 

Harsin came out swinging Thursday, spiking the football after winning the battle over those who wanted him gone. But this Auburn we’re talking about. Another battle is always just another day away on The Plains. 

It won’t shock anyone if we’re doing this dance all again later this fall.

War Damn Anarchy.