Now that the disclaimer is out the way.... some thoughts....
Watching a walk on do his best Fred Talley impression and a team that was thumped by 30 by the West Point cadets physically dominate Auburn for 99% of the game was not fun. But as I told my bammer and dawg family members texting me during that 4 hour Chinese Water Torture...it would have been oh so much worse had we lost the game. That loss would never be forgotten and AU would be the butt of an eternity of Georgia State jokes so...thank you players and coaches for avoiding that debacle.
That being said...we won the game and we did so with some damn good bright spots. The defense, with Zakoby back in the lineup, did a complete 180 and shut GSU down completely. Would Zakoby playing the entire game have made our near heart attack a distant memory? No clue...but they did their job in the second half and gave us a chance. Offensively...we were pretty much a mess the entire game, and it's never fun watching 260 pound Sun Belt lineman physically dominate the point of attack against AU. But...we also saw Auburn mount a do or die 98 yard TD drive when they absolutely had to have it. And we saw a coaching staff make the call that I don't believe the previous one would and go to another QB to give us a spark.
Post game.....both in his body language and in his direct comments...I saw a completely different mentality and demeanor than I did from the previous Head Coach. You don't have to be Miss Cleo to understand that a large portion of those comments were Harsin talking directly to his team and his coaching staff that things need to change and change permanently at every level in order to be where we need to be. There is ZERO Coach Speak with Harsin....you can tell his disdain for it as well. He has a clear vision and he has clear expectations and those are not being met right now by anyone in the program.
All that being said.... I saw with my own eyes this same Auburn football team go toe to toe with a top 10 team in a hostile environment just 8 days ago. They do have the ability to play much better. I suspect they will in the future. The next 5 weeks will probably have more rollercoaster moments but I'm hoping that while the outcomes may fluctuate..I'm hoping to see a more consistent level of play. That may not happen until Harsin gets more of "his" guys in the program and more offseasons to instill his culture. But I am confident that we have a Head Coach who has the ability to do that.
TLDR....Harsin is an alpha. He's got to have time to get more alphas (or mold existing ones) and I think he can and will do so.
Watching a walk on do his best Fred Talley impression and a team that was thumped by 30 by the West Point cadets physically dominate Auburn for 99% of the game was not fun. But as I told my bammer and dawg family members texting me during that 4 hour Chinese Water Torture...it would have been oh so much worse had we lost the game. That loss would never be forgotten and AU would be the butt of an eternity of Georgia State jokes so...thank you players and coaches for avoiding that debacle.
That being said...we won the game and we did so with some damn good bright spots. The defense, with Zakoby back in the lineup, did a complete 180 and shut GSU down completely. Would Zakoby playing the entire game have made our near heart attack a distant memory? No clue...but they did their job in the second half and gave us a chance. Offensively...we were pretty much a mess the entire game, and it's never fun watching 260 pound Sun Belt lineman physically dominate the point of attack against AU. But...we also saw Auburn mount a do or die 98 yard TD drive when they absolutely had to have it. And we saw a coaching staff make the call that I don't believe the previous one would and go to another QB to give us a spark.
Post game.....both in his body language and in his direct comments...I saw a completely different mentality and demeanor than I did from the previous Head Coach. You don't have to be Miss Cleo to understand that a large portion of those comments were Harsin talking directly to his team and his coaching staff that things need to change and change permanently at every level in order to be where we need to be. There is ZERO Coach Speak with Harsin....you can tell his disdain for it as well. He has a clear vision and he has clear expectations and those are not being met right now by anyone in the program.
All that being said.... I saw with my own eyes this same Auburn football team go toe to toe with a top 10 team in a hostile environment just 8 days ago. They do have the ability to play much better. I suspect they will in the future. The next 5 weeks will probably have more rollercoaster moments but I'm hoping that while the outcomes may fluctuate..I'm hoping to see a more consistent level of play. That may not happen until Harsin gets more of "his" guys in the program and more offseasons to instill his culture. But I am confident that we have a Head Coach who has the ability to do that.
TLDR....Harsin is an alpha. He's got to have time to get more alphas (or mold existing ones) and I think he can and will do so.
