We've all heard it, and said it 1,000 times. Auburn seems to do their best work when nobody gives them a chance. Well, NOBODY is giving this team a chance. I can't say I've ever seen lower expectations for an Auburn foosballz team.
Copy/Pasta from Auburn Undercover
Auburn and head coach Bryan Harsin had a tumultuous offseason. In Harsin’s first season after arriving from Boise State, the Tigers lost their final five games to finish 6-7. The program announced Harsin’s return, but the drama surrounding job security caught the eyes of a couple of anonymous SEC coaches who spoke to Athlon Sports for their college football preview magazine.
“You could argue a lot of the wounds they’re nursing are self-inflicted by both the head coach and the people around the program,” one anonymous coach said. “It certainly drove coaches and players out of the program, and it absolutely made it easier to recruit against them.”
Harsin spoke several times about the ordeal on The Plains, and without a doubt faces an uphill battle in his second season. Auburn faces the usual tough slate in the SEC West and welcomes Penn State for an early-season clash.
“The upside is that you can’t say Harsin doesn’t understand the league anymore,” another anonymous coach said. “If he survives this, it will be the greatest trial by fire ever.”
Auburn saw three-year starter Bo Nix transfer from the program and land at Oregon. The competition is between LSU transfer T.J. Finley, who arrived in 2021, and Texas A&M transfer Zach Calzada who arrived this past offseason. Another anonymous coach does not seem to think too highly of either one and thinks the supporting cast of the Tigers lacks in several areas on both sides of the ball.
“As far as the football, they need a quarterback, they need a much better offensive line, they need to replace a ton of guys in the secondary and receiving corps, and they’ve bled a lot of Gus Malzahn’s guys in the portal because of all the off-field stuff,” another anonymous coach said. “Is it a lost cause? Maybe not.”
Athlon predicts Auburn to finish seventh in the SEC West with a 6-6 record and 2-6 mark in SEC play.
Despite some early offseason movement, not one player entered the transfer portal following the program’s April 9 spring game — something Harsin harped on in the weeks following it.
"I think it says a lot about where we are as a team,” Harsin said in May at an alumni event. “The things we do in the team meetings, those are sacred, we don't talk about that. But we have great leaders on this team. We have guys that want to win. We have a group of coaches that, I feel, is united. Every day I'd walk into the team meeting during spring, or any chance I get the opportunity to speak to our team, I'm always excited about it.
"I like where we're at. I'm not surprised that every single one of those guys are still here. They chose to come back. I think that's the one thing we're missing in some of these stories is that they chose to come back; they chose to be part of what we're doing. They want to lead, they want to win, they want to be part of Auburn football. They see the things that we're building. So those guys are the foundation for where we're going.”
Auburn opens the season Sept. 3 against Mercer at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tigers follow that with a home game against San Jose State before hosting Penn State. Then SEC play begins.