It is no secret that the end of Bryan Harsin’s Auburn tenure — the whole era for that matter — will forever be a dark chapter in the history of Auburn football.
He began his Auburn career as the “out of left field” hire. He was not the most popular name of the search, as he came to The Plains from Boise State with minimal experience coaching football in the south. In his first season, the Tigers began 6-2 with a win over a top-10 Ole Miss team. However, following that game on Halloween weekend, the season took an ugly turn. Auburn lost its final five games.
During the offseason, he was the target of a coup attempt. Though he survived, the issues within the program remained. In Year 2, Auburn lost to Penn State at home in blowout fashion and had lengthy winning streaks against Arkansas and Ole Miss end.
In addition to the on-field product, Auburn fell behind in recruiting.
Harsin was dismissed on Halloween, two days after Auburn’s 41-27 loss to Arkansas at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
His time in Auburn was anything but pretty, which is why he takes the top spot of an undesirable year-end list.
On3 recently released its assessments of second-year coaches, from worst to first. Several coaches received a good grade, including Tennessee‘s Josh Heupel and Kansas’ Lance Leipold. Harsin kicked off the rankings by having the worst performance of any second-year coach.
Jesse Simonton of On3 sympathized with Harsin, but also wrote Auburn was more motivated to play following his departure.
For more than a year, Auburn essentially treated Bryan Harsin like the kid in “Toy Story” who tortures Woody with a magnifying glass. It was wholly unfair to Harsin.
But setting aside all the ugly and unfounded rumors surrounding Harsin and his family, the former Boise State head coach did an awful job at one of the premiere programs in the country.
Harsin lost five straight games to end a disappointing Year 1, and things only got worse this fall. After a pair of victories…
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