SECMD22: Auburn's Harsin returns fire on offseason rumors

Bryan Harsin speaks to the media during Thursday’s SEC Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. (Courtesy SEC Media Relations)

By TIM GAYLE

Bryan Harsin knew the topic before he stepped to the podium at SEC Media Days in Atlanta on Thursday. So he addressed it before taking the first question.

The Auburn football coach was on vacation during the offseason when rumors started flying about the new coach, questioning everything from how he handled his football team to infidelity in his marriage. In the end, the administration conducted an official inquiry into the program, but the damage lingers, at least in the perception of Harsin and his program to outsiders. 

Harsin, on the other hand, said the attack brought the team and its coach closer together.

“There was an inquiry,” he said. “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.

“Right now our focus is on moving forward. What came out of that inquiry were a lot of positives. There was a silver lining in all of this. What I saw from our players and our coaches was leadership opportunities for them to step up, which is exactly what they did. You got a chance to see guys provide leadership. You got a chance to see coaches provide leadership.

“What it did is it united our football team, our players, our staff, our football team. I’m really proud of our guys. I’m proud of what something like that that could be very challenging and difficult for a lot of people, how our guys stepped up and handled it. We had coaches and players that could have went to

different places, avoided all the adversity and challenges. They didn’t do that. They’re here working extremely hard. They’re doing a fantastic job, in my opinion, getting themselves ready to go for this season.”

Whether or not the inquiry strengthened the bond between Harsin and his players remains to be seen as the 2022 season unfolds. Whether the housecleaning that followed -- with 13 players arriving via the transfer portal and four new coaches added to the staff -- builds a stronger team is a question that won’t be answered until at least Sept. 17 when Penn State comes to Jordan-Hare and maybe much later than that.

“People can say what they want, but they’re not in the locker room,” tight end John Samuel Shenker said. “They’re not at practice every day. We believe what we’re doing in the offseason has created momentum, positivity, and what we’re ready to do this fall.”

The Tigers replaced offensive coordinator Mike Bobo with former receivers coach Eric Kiesau and defensive coordinator Derek Mason with inside linebackers coach Jeff Schmedding. Auburn will be a better team in 2022, Harsin promised. 

“We have some new coaches that have been brought in that I think have been instrumental in getting to where we are right now,” he said. “We’ve had some new players through the portal, high school players that have come in that have been great additions.

“My biggest take from last season is I think, as we build, we’ve got to continue to lay out the expectations, we’ve got to continue to have great conversations, we’ve got to continue to build relationships with our players.

“I think the one thing that’s made the biggest difference is bringing some guys in that are helping to make that happen, as well. The alignment that we all need to have in order to be able to execute those things at the level that we all expect.”

Auburn returns nine starters on offense, losing only its top big-play receiver in Demetris Robinson and its best lineman in right tackle Brodarious Hamm. Five starters that were seniors like Robinson and Hamm elected to return for their COVID year, giving the Tigers eight of the 10 offensive linemen on last year’s depth chart. 

That, along with quarterback T.J. Finley, receivers Shedrick Jackson and Ja’varrius Johnson and tailback Tank Bigsby (along with backup Jarquez Hunter) is a good place to start. Throw in transfer quarterbacks Robby Ashford (Oregon) and Zach Calzada (Texas A&M), transfer running backs Jordan Ingram (Central Michigan) and Justin Jones (UAB) and transfer receivers Koy Moore (LSU) and Dazalin Worsham (Miami) and there’s plenty of potential -- and plenty of questions. 

“When I came to Auburn as a freshman in 2020, I just felt like this school is different,” Bigsby said. “After my sophomore season, I felt the same way. It’s a different program, and you have to be a different man to be in this program. A lot of people don’t like us, and a lot of people speak bad about us, but at the end of the day we have to come to play, and we have to be ready to play.

“We are playing hard for coach, but we’re playing hard for each other, for the team. The situation that went on brought us closer. It brought us closer as a team and as a family. We go out and play for each other and lay it all on the line and do everything we have to do to get a win.”

Defensively, six starters return but most of the biggest names are among the five that graduated -- nose tackle Tony Fair, linebacker Zakoby McClain, star Chandler Wooten, cornerback Roger McCreary and safety Smoke Monday. Again, the transfer portal helped, providing Vanderbilt safety Donovan Kaufman, North Carolina linebacker Eugene Asante, Oregon cornerback D.J. James and four linemen -- Marcus Bragg (Western Kentucky), Marcus Harris (Kansas), Jayson Jones (Oregon) and Morris Joseph (Memphis).

Perhaps the best news is the return of senior placekicker Anders Carlson from an injury that sidelined him late last season, along with his late-season replacement, Ben Patton, and punter Oscar Chapman.

With such an influx of unproven newcomers, most analysts pick the Tigers near the bottom of the incredibly tough SEC West Division, where two losses could separate the top team from the bottom half of the standings. Harsin offered a different outlook, although only time will tell whether his Thursday prediction will prove to be an accurate one.

“I think the message is: watch,” he said. “We’ve got to go out there and play. That’s the beauty of what we get a chance to do every Saturday, all right? When you get into the arena, you have the opportunity to go out there and settle the score, all right? You have a chance to compete. That’s really what we do this for. We do it so that we can get into that arena and have that opportunity.

“We’ve told our recruits: watch. I think the ones that have been on our campus, they see the energy and the vibe, what’s happening, how the players are responding, coaches are connecting, everything that we’re doing. There’s a great energy in our program right now. There’s alignment in our program right now. I know those recruits and families feel that when they step on campus.”