Yes he's a bama homer, hates Auburn. But this is a terrible look for Bryan Harsin. National medial will make him the football example of a kook who acts like he knows more than the world's top scientist and Doctors. Kirby & Nicky are having a fun over this. And, this is just the begining. So, what does Harsin do, double down or change?
for those that don't want to give him the click, here's the article.
www.al.com
Auburn coach Bryan Harsin talks to his team after practice Saturday. Auburn football practice 1 on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021 in Auburn, Ala. Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics
By Joseph Goodman | jgoodman@al.com
It’s going to take something different at Auburn, and someone out of the ordinary, to challenge Nick Saban and Kirby Smart for supremacy of the SEC.
Say this for new Auburn coach Bryan Harsin. He’s certainly not like the others. No previous ties to Auburn. Check. A maverick who does things his way. Double check. Gold star. Bold underscore.
There is a lot to like about this coach from Idaho, but his first preseason on The Plains cannot be included among them. Not after refusing to promote vaccination for COVID-19 among his team caused confusion within his program, and then testing positive for the virus halfway through fall camp. He went into quarantine on Friday, reporting that he was without symptoms. Is Harsin vaccinated? Is he not vaccinated? He refuses to say, but these are not questions anyone should have to ask of a public figure who is paid millions of dollars to manage a key asset of Auburn University, and, most importantly, protect the well being and set a strong example for the boys he has been entrusted to develop into young men.
This is how an “Auburn Man” takes care of the family? Nah. Harsin’s mismanagement of Auburn football is infuriating, but his stubborn neglect for the safety of people he is paid to shepherd into adulthood is unacceptable.
Auburn is resilient, and the new football facility is among the best in the country, but the drama never seems to end for Auburn football. It just mutates into different variants of the stupefyingly painful. With former coach Gus Malzahn, it was always how he couldn’t unify the always splintered fanbase and win enough games consistently. With Harsin, it’s worse because whether or not he supports vaccination during a pandemic is an embarrassing indictment on Auburn University and the entire state.
Being hired at Auburn during a pandemic was never going to be easy, but Harsin’s most important decisions in his first year as a coach in the unrelenting SEC West have made things harder than they needed to be. And why, exactly? Personal choice?
What is that?
When a public university agrees to pay a coach $5 million per year, then protecting that public university’s interests are the only choices on the table. There are no personal choices for SEC football coaches, and that includes — and this should be understood, but we’ll spell it out anyway — refusing to promote vaccination against a disease during a pandemic.
Auburn great Charles Barkley was the leader the state of Alabama needed this week by calling the unvaccinated “idiots” and then helping with a vaccination drive in Birmingham. Meanwhile, Harsin can’t be with his football team during fall camp after a positive test. He missed the groundbreaking on Saturday for the new football facility. Every day he’s away from the field, he will lose more credibility as an effective leader.
Ole Miss was 100 percent vaccinated for fall camp. Alabama is near that number. Auburn’s coach is in quarantine, and not by choice.
There is only winning in the SEC, and doing everything necessary to ensure that happens. Nothing else matters. How many coaches in the SEC were fired last year? Four. During a pandemic with no option for a vaccine.
For the record, and for the future success of Auburn, Harsin’s strong personality and uncompromising beliefs should be considered good things. For the time being, though, it’s fair to question whether or not Harsin’s approach to this preseason might cost Auburn losses by forfeit due to contact tracing related to positive tests for COVID-19. How many millions of dollars were spent to buyout Gus Malzahn and his assistants and then replace them with a coach who has spent the last few months blaming Malzahn for a sloppy and irresponsible team culture?
And now here we are.
Auburn is starting the season in a hole because of Harsin’s leadership, and, even with a team good enough on paper to challenge for the SEC West title, that poor leadership could cost Auburn the season before it even begins. It’s a given that Harsin’s positive test be met with serious concern for his personal health. Get well soon, Coach. The scary thing about it is that if he needs a hospital bed in an ICU, then he might be waiting a while.
If anything good can come from this, then hopefully it causes more people across the state to seek out the vaccine. Get vaccinated. It could save lives. Lane Kiffin said it best. Refusing to be vaccinated is a selfish decision. For people in positions of power, refusing to promote the vaccine at this point should be considered reckless endangerment of the public health.
It all makes the importance we place on college football seem so out of touch, but then the inverse of that social equation is that this goes without saying: our football coaches affect public opinion and perception throughout Alabama.
This caldron of SEC crazy in which we operate is, by definition, insane. That’s why we love it, but that’s also why we sometimes hate to acknowledge reality. Auburn football has delivered a heavy dose of it, though, and maybe when we all needed it most.
The margins that separate success and failure are so slight in the SEC that anything but a perfectly executed fall camp are often the differences between coaches getting an extension and getting fired. Last year, that was the case for Malzahn. His season was effectively a bust before it started when the offensive line was in quarantine during an extended period of fall camp.
Auburn is at Penn State before the meat of its murderous schedule even begins, but first they have to beat back COVID-19 from taking out their roster from within. With a vaccine available, there are no excuses if positive tests of unvaccinated coaches or players derail this season. The vaccine is safe, and it is effective at mitigating the severity of COVID-19 and its spread.
The choice to ignore these facts was never an option for a coach in the SEC.
Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr. His first book, “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s ‘Ultimate Team’,” debuts in November.
for those that don't want to give him the click, here's the article.
Failure of Auburn coach Bryan Harsin goes far beyond football field
Now positive for COVID-19, the football coach of Auburn University has endangered public health by refusing to promote vaccination.
Failure of Auburn coach Bryan Harsin goes far beyond football field
Updated: 7:19 a.m. | Published: 7:19 a.m.
Auburn coach Bryan Harsin talks to his team after practice Saturday. Auburn football practice 1 on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021 in Auburn, Ala. Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics
By Joseph Goodman | jgoodman@al.com
It’s going to take something different at Auburn, and someone out of the ordinary, to challenge Nick Saban and Kirby Smart for supremacy of the SEC.
Say this for new Auburn coach Bryan Harsin. He’s certainly not like the others. No previous ties to Auburn. Check. A maverick who does things his way. Double check. Gold star. Bold underscore.
There is a lot to like about this coach from Idaho, but his first preseason on The Plains cannot be included among them. Not after refusing to promote vaccination for COVID-19 among his team caused confusion within his program, and then testing positive for the virus halfway through fall camp. He went into quarantine on Friday, reporting that he was without symptoms. Is Harsin vaccinated? Is he not vaccinated? He refuses to say, but these are not questions anyone should have to ask of a public figure who is paid millions of dollars to manage a key asset of Auburn University, and, most importantly, protect the well being and set a strong example for the boys he has been entrusted to develop into young men.
This is how an “Auburn Man” takes care of the family? Nah. Harsin’s mismanagement of Auburn football is infuriating, but his stubborn neglect for the safety of people he is paid to shepherd into adulthood is unacceptable.
Auburn is resilient, and the new football facility is among the best in the country, but the drama never seems to end for Auburn football. It just mutates into different variants of the stupefyingly painful. With former coach Gus Malzahn, it was always how he couldn’t unify the always splintered fanbase and win enough games consistently. With Harsin, it’s worse because whether or not he supports vaccination during a pandemic is an embarrassing indictment on Auburn University and the entire state.
Being hired at Auburn during a pandemic was never going to be easy, but Harsin’s most important decisions in his first year as a coach in the unrelenting SEC West have made things harder than they needed to be. And why, exactly? Personal choice?
What is that?
When a public university agrees to pay a coach $5 million per year, then protecting that public university’s interests are the only choices on the table. There are no personal choices for SEC football coaches, and that includes — and this should be understood, but we’ll spell it out anyway — refusing to promote vaccination against a disease during a pandemic.
Auburn great Charles Barkley was the leader the state of Alabama needed this week by calling the unvaccinated “idiots” and then helping with a vaccination drive in Birmingham. Meanwhile, Harsin can’t be with his football team during fall camp after a positive test. He missed the groundbreaking on Saturday for the new football facility. Every day he’s away from the field, he will lose more credibility as an effective leader.
Ole Miss was 100 percent vaccinated for fall camp. Alabama is near that number. Auburn’s coach is in quarantine, and not by choice.
There is only winning in the SEC, and doing everything necessary to ensure that happens. Nothing else matters. How many coaches in the SEC were fired last year? Four. During a pandemic with no option for a vaccine.
For the record, and for the future success of Auburn, Harsin’s strong personality and uncompromising beliefs should be considered good things. For the time being, though, it’s fair to question whether or not Harsin’s approach to this preseason might cost Auburn losses by forfeit due to contact tracing related to positive tests for COVID-19. How many millions of dollars were spent to buyout Gus Malzahn and his assistants and then replace them with a coach who has spent the last few months blaming Malzahn for a sloppy and irresponsible team culture?
And now here we are.
Auburn is starting the season in a hole because of Harsin’s leadership, and, even with a team good enough on paper to challenge for the SEC West title, that poor leadership could cost Auburn the season before it even begins. It’s a given that Harsin’s positive test be met with serious concern for his personal health. Get well soon, Coach. The scary thing about it is that if he needs a hospital bed in an ICU, then he might be waiting a while.
If anything good can come from this, then hopefully it causes more people across the state to seek out the vaccine. Get vaccinated. It could save lives. Lane Kiffin said it best. Refusing to be vaccinated is a selfish decision. For people in positions of power, refusing to promote the vaccine at this point should be considered reckless endangerment of the public health.
It all makes the importance we place on college football seem so out of touch, but then the inverse of that social equation is that this goes without saying: our football coaches affect public opinion and perception throughout Alabama.
This caldron of SEC crazy in which we operate is, by definition, insane. That’s why we love it, but that’s also why we sometimes hate to acknowledge reality. Auburn football has delivered a heavy dose of it, though, and maybe when we all needed it most.
The margins that separate success and failure are so slight in the SEC that anything but a perfectly executed fall camp are often the differences between coaches getting an extension and getting fired. Last year, that was the case for Malzahn. His season was effectively a bust before it started when the offensive line was in quarantine during an extended period of fall camp.
Auburn is at Penn State before the meat of its murderous schedule even begins, but first they have to beat back COVID-19 from taking out their roster from within. With a vaccine available, there are no excuses if positive tests of unvaccinated coaches or players derail this season. The vaccine is safe, and it is effective at mitigating the severity of COVID-19 and its spread.
The choice to ignore these facts was never an option for a coach in the SEC.
Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr. His first book, “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s ‘Ultimate Team’,” debuts in November.
