Coach Byron Hatpin arrived at Auburn a little over a year ago. The staff that will lead the Tigers this Fall will look vastly different than the one he hired for the 2021 season. First, WR Coach, Cornelius Williams was unceremoniously let go a few games into the season. As soon as the Tigers finished blowing a 10-3 lead in the Iron Bowl, OC, Mike Bobo, was sent packing as well.
The exodus continued when D-line Coach, Nick Eason, bolted for Clemson. Now, our DC, Derek Mason, is headed to the Big 12 to work for the 40 year old man, Coach Mullet.
This may be needless piling on, and may have little or nothing to do with the staff shake up, but I think if you also take note of the fact that we've had 15-16 players enter the portal, and arguably our best receiver dismissed, the optics (As so many like to say) aren't good.
Granted, the portal has hit everybody hard, and we lost our fair share of bodies last year as well. Many of the guys were no-brainers who weren't going to crack the rotation. Others were head scratchers that made you wonder WTH is going on? But, probably best not to read too much in to the cummins' and goins' of players, and hopefully chalk it up to the current environment of college football.
The staff changes have to raise some eyebrows, though. You're willfully blind if they don't. No need to go off the deep end about them, but there are questions that need to be asked. And at the very least, you have to pay attention to the overall state of this program after the upcoming season. These were Harvinz' hires. He felt the need to fire two of them. Eason can be brushed off as someone who went back to his alma mater, which just happens to be one of the elite programs of the last decade. But Mason leaving to presumably make what has to be considered a less than lateral move, is where things start to get interesting.
The Defensive Coordinator at Auburn doesn't just up and decide to go coach in a failing conference. If he was offered a HC job or a position in the NFL....yeah, I can see that. We all kind of assumed that would happen sooner than later anyway. But Okie State? Nah! I don't think it's a stretch of any kind to assume there were problems between he and Harkins. Those were the rumors. Rumors I resisted by the way, because self-professed "insiders" like Justin Hokanson and his Bigsby to Georgia garbage, continue to sour me and make me take every rumor with a big, fat grain of salt.
But this one apparently had legs. GH sent an article by Jay G Tate, which echoes my sentiments exactly. There may be some cracks in the dam. On the other hand, this may just be business as usual. Either way, it's not a good look, and what happens in 2022 may tell us all is Brian Harminz really has the master plan, or he's in over his head.
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