From the day he was hired, I have been one of this board's biggest Bryan Harsin supporters. Today, I'll be the first to admit that this experiment probably doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of working out long-term. Looking back, @penya87 was correct in his cynicism throughout the spring and summer and I now realize I had hoped Bryan Harsin would succeed here much more than I actually thought he would.
I think it was late in the 2nd quarter when something scary occurred to me: this was Harsin's team playing at high morale. If we are to believe that this team is close with one another (and it appears they are), that they're playing with excitement and a high level of effort (and it appears they are), and in the complete absence of Scott Frost-esque coaching snafus (at least thus far), the only logical conclusion I can draw to explain what I saw last night is that this team simply isn't very good and suffers from a severe lack of talent at numerous key positions.
That's it. That's the bottom line. Auburn probably has 3-4 players on their two-deep that could start at a top 20 program. It doesn't matter at this point if Eric Kiesau and Jeff Schmedding know what the hell they're doing. Even if they did, they are handicapped by incredible deficiencies on both sides of the ball, probably the most crippling since at least 1998. They simply don't have very much. There isn't a single offensive lineman, receiver, or quarterback who could start at a top 20 program. And while the starters themselves aren't very good, the depth drops off even more significantly after that, meaning a few injuries here or there could result in '2012' levels of iniquity, though I don't think that's a great comparison because the 2012 team was infinitely more talented than this one. There's no telling how bad the current team can be if morale takes a hit and the effort starts sliding. I'll put it this way: I hope like hell they're telling the truth about how close they are with one another, because it'll take every bit of loyalty and courage these kids have to get to 7 wins. And I'd rather not talk about next year, when I expect Auburn to officially enter the status of "complete and total rebuild" for whoever takes over. I don't expect recruiting to pick up very much momentum over the next few months and the staff might be dead in the water on the trail come November, anyway.
I believe Bryan Harsin is a good football coach and he also appears to be a good man and a man of integrity. Unfortunately, this mess won't be fixed by a good football coach, a good man, or a man of integrity. This will be fixed by someone who can walk into a living room in Mobile, Miami, Atlanta, and hell, Opelika, while we're at it, and win the entire family over in the course of a meal. It will be fixed by someone who finds ways to keep troubled players on the team rather than allowing them to leave. That's the only way out of this deal. There is no magic bullet, no quick fix for any of this. Once we have that certain someone, and I have no idea who it is, it will still take 2-3 years to rebuild the brand and repair relationships with high schools throughout Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. My feeling is that we're about enter a cool-down period where Auburn will be forced to wrestle with some very tough questions they've been avoiding for quite some time.
We'll be back. This mess has been a long time coming and in some ways, I'm amazed that it's taken this long to reach this point. The program will be better for it when it's all said and done, though. Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom before you can see the way back up.
I think it was late in the 2nd quarter when something scary occurred to me: this was Harsin's team playing at high morale. If we are to believe that this team is close with one another (and it appears they are), that they're playing with excitement and a high level of effort (and it appears they are), and in the complete absence of Scott Frost-esque coaching snafus (at least thus far), the only logical conclusion I can draw to explain what I saw last night is that this team simply isn't very good and suffers from a severe lack of talent at numerous key positions.
That's it. That's the bottom line. Auburn probably has 3-4 players on their two-deep that could start at a top 20 program. It doesn't matter at this point if Eric Kiesau and Jeff Schmedding know what the hell they're doing. Even if they did, they are handicapped by incredible deficiencies on both sides of the ball, probably the most crippling since at least 1998. They simply don't have very much. There isn't a single offensive lineman, receiver, or quarterback who could start at a top 20 program. And while the starters themselves aren't very good, the depth drops off even more significantly after that, meaning a few injuries here or there could result in '2012' levels of iniquity, though I don't think that's a great comparison because the 2012 team was infinitely more talented than this one. There's no telling how bad the current team can be if morale takes a hit and the effort starts sliding. I'll put it this way: I hope like hell they're telling the truth about how close they are with one another, because it'll take every bit of loyalty and courage these kids have to get to 7 wins. And I'd rather not talk about next year, when I expect Auburn to officially enter the status of "complete and total rebuild" for whoever takes over. I don't expect recruiting to pick up very much momentum over the next few months and the staff might be dead in the water on the trail come November, anyway.
I believe Bryan Harsin is a good football coach and he also appears to be a good man and a man of integrity. Unfortunately, this mess won't be fixed by a good football coach, a good man, or a man of integrity. This will be fixed by someone who can walk into a living room in Mobile, Miami, Atlanta, and hell, Opelika, while we're at it, and win the entire family over in the course of a meal. It will be fixed by someone who finds ways to keep troubled players on the team rather than allowing them to leave. That's the only way out of this deal. There is no magic bullet, no quick fix for any of this. Once we have that certain someone, and I have no idea who it is, it will still take 2-3 years to rebuild the brand and repair relationships with high schools throughout Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. My feeling is that we're about enter a cool-down period where Auburn will be forced to wrestle with some very tough questions they've been avoiding for quite some time.
We'll be back. This mess has been a long time coming and in some ways, I'm amazed that it's taken this long to reach this point. The program will be better for it when it's all said and done, though. Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom before you can see the way back up.
