Auburn Empowers Bryan Harsin To Create A Championship Caliber Culture Of Consistency

Auburn Empowers Bryan Harsin To Create A Championship Caliber Culture Of Consistency

June 3, 2021 Skye Underwood By
New Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin / Todd Van Emst (Auburn Athletics)

Power of Dixieland founder Skye Underwood takes a deep dive into 2021 Auburn Football as the program transitions into a new coaching regime in an effort to create a new culture on the plains

The national perception of Auburn Football entering new head coach Bryan Harsin’s inaugural season is what Auburn fans have grown accustomed to in how the Tigers finished seasons under Gus Malzahn.

Consider the fact that in four of Malzahn’s eight seasons on the plains, Auburn began the year ranked in the Top-10 and not only did the Tigers finish all four years ranked outside of the Top-10, Auburn fell completely out of the Top-25 altogether in three of the four years.

And before each college football season, Las Vegas oddsmakers set win totals for each and every team, and they were released a couple days ago. The wise guys in Vegas set Auburn’s win total at 7 for the upcoming 2021 season and the Tigers’ twelve game schedule. Do you think Auburn will exceed 7 wins, or fall under 7 victories in 2021?

A 7-5 regular season is all too familiar territory for Auburn fans, especially after witnessing the last eight seasons under Malzahn when the Tigers finished five of those years in ho-hum fashion. 2013, ‘17, and ‘19 were obviously Malzahn’s three best seasons as Auburn’s head coach, but the other five years were plagued by mediocrity when the Tigers compiled a record of 37-25 overall and 20-22 in the SEC.

I simply want to paint a picture in an effort to show you why Auburn fans have been so frustrated the last few years with the inconsistencies and why a change at the top was inevitable and a good thing for all parties involved. Truth be told, the reason there was a head coaching change at Auburn is because of the program’s desire to compete for championships on a more consistent basis.

Enter new head coach Bryan Harsin.

The Boise, Idaho native grew up in Boise, played high school football in Boise, walked-on at quarterback at Boise State, before becoming an assistant coach there and eventually an offensive coordinator/play caller under his mentor, college football great Chris Petersen. Harsin would later replace Petersen as Boise State’s head coach in 2014 after spending one year as Arkansas State’s head coach, where he won the Sun Belt Championship in his lone season of 2013. Believe it or not, Harsin was hired at Arkansas State to replace Gus Malzahn, who also spent just one season in Jonesboro before accepting the Auburn job, so this will be the second time of Harsin’s career that he’s replaced Malzahn as head coach of an FBS program. Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?

But not to wonder too far off course from the original point I was trying to convey — Harsin had it made at Boise State, especially after winning three Mountain West Conference Championships, all while compiling a 69-19 record in his 7 seasons for the Broncos. He’s been a Division-1 head coach for just 8 years and has won a conference title in four of those seasons.  The 44-year-old owns the 6th best winning percentage (.784) since 2014 in all the FBS. To put it simply, the man knows how to win.

Not to mention, you have to applaud Hars’ courage to not only give up the comfy pressureless confines of Boise, Idaho, but especially for electing to take on what some consider the toughest job in America at Auburn, where you share a state with Nick Saban, arguably the best coach in college football history.

I knew it would take a special opportunity to get me out of Boise and Auburn is exactly that, the chance to compete at the highest level for one of the greatest programs in college football.

Bryan Harsin

At least Harsin can breathe a sigh of relief entering his first season on the plains considering expectations from a national perspective are relatively low. He has Malzahn to thank for that. 

I think most Auburn fans can live with a 7-5 mark in 2021, as long as they see their team actually improve as the year unfolds, rather than regress as has been the case in the past. Fans want to see their offensive line show vast improvement. They want to see Bo Nix stand firmly in the pocket till the last millisecond before piss-roping a strike across the middle to a big lumbering tight end. And quite frankly, most fans anticipate Harsin and new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo building their offense around the team’s best player which just happens to be a tank.

There are certainly plenty of question marks surrounding the offensive side of the ball, and chief among them is offensive line play. The Tigers return their entire starting offensive line from 2020, but some might perceive that as both a blessing and a curse. To be candid, if Auburn wants to turn a corner as a program, offensive line recruiting and production needs to get a lot better. It’s also worth noting that the big uglies will be under their third different position coach in the last three years with Will Friend now leading the charge. Not to mention, there are also concerns about the lack of returning wide receiver production, as well as running back depth.

And by now, most everyone is aware of the recent news that former LSU quarterback T.J. Finley, all 6-foot-6, 240-pounds of him has elected to transfer to Auburn in order to compete with Bo Nix for the starting role in 2021.

And while I’m a big believer in the talents of Auburn true freshman quarterback Dematrius Davis, who has the it factor, I think he’s a year or two away from truly winning the starting role, so it was a stellar move by Harsin and staff to lure Finley to the plains because the competition should bring out the best in both him and Nix, and even Davis to some degree.

I do believe as it stands right now that Bo Nix gives Auburn the best chance to win, but former Auburn center and current SEC network analyst Cole Cubelic said on the radio sports talk show ‘3 Man Front’ that he co-hosts on 94.5 FM in Birmingham, “T.J. Finley is the most talented quarterback on Auburn’s roster. He may not be the best quarterback on the roster, but he certainly is the most talented.”

I don’t know what that says about Auburn, but it’s important to note that although Finley made a few starts last season in his freshman campaign for LSU — some good, some bad — keep in mind that he was going to be the Bayou Bengals’ third-string quarterback behind Myles Brennan and Max Johnson entering 2021. Is LSU’s third best option at quarterback suddenly Auburn’s best option at the most important position on the field?

Fall camp for the Tigers should be compelling to say the least. Many fans think Nix regressed from his true freshman season in 2019 to his sophomore year in 2020. He certainly didn’t improve, but just like with everything in football, the quarterback always gets too much credit when things go well and too much blame when things go sideways. 

Recently, J.T. O’Sullivan, founder of TheQBSchool.com, uploaded a video to their YouTube page analyzing Bo Nix and the Auburn offense as a whole last season against Georgia. I appreciate O’Sullivan’s approach because not only does he give you exclusive insight to the inner-workings of each play from different camera angles, he pulls no punches and holds nothing back when there’s inefficiencies in an offensive scheme. And this video will enlighten the regular fan on how important it is for other positions in the offense to execute their jobs in order for the quarterback to be able to successfully perform his.

On one unsuccessful 3rd down and 9 play where Nix was immediately flushed out of the pocket only to throw across his body which fortunately for Auburn was not intercepted and instead fell incomplete, O’Sullivan says, “so the decision-making compounded with the scheme deficiencies in pass protection just make this an absolute muddy mess. I think it’s really, really important to understand how pass protection is tethered in to giving the quarterback an opportunity to be successful.”

Harsin and Bobo will have their hands full on the offensive side of the ball, but as I previously mentioned, one feather in their cap is the return of SEC’s 2020 Freshman of the Year, sophomore running back Tank Bigsby, who Pro Football Focus tabbed as the No. 1 running back in the country entering 2021.

And Bigsby’s backup, senior Shaun Shivers is no slouch, either. Pound for pound, Shivers is arguably one of the hardest runners in the country.

However, behind Bigsby and Shivers things start to get a little mirky in regards to running back depth after the transfers of D.J. Williams to FSU, Mark Antony-Richards to UCF, and Harold Joiner to Michigan State.

Senior Devan Barrett is Auburn’s third option at tailback after arriving to the plains as a running back before being moved to defensive back by Malzahn only to be moved back to the running back room by Harsin due to the depth concerns. I thought Auburn’s new staff might land a new running back in the transfer portal, along with a left tackle, but so far that hasn’t been the case.

With just three scholarship running backs on the roster, Auburn gladly welcomes its fourth ‘back on scholarship this summer in 2021 signee Jarquez Hunter. The 5-foot-11, 197-pounder flew under the recruiting radar, but Harsin may have found a hidden gem considering Hunter not only led the state of Mississippi in rushing, but he broke Mississippi high school football legend Marcus Dupree’s all-time touchdown (88 TDs) record with 93 career touchdowns.

And as I’m typing this, ‘The Jboy Show’ tweeted out some breaking news regarding a possible new addition to the Auburn running back room as former Central Michigan running back Jordon Ingram will join the Tigers as a preferred walk-on in an effort to help shore up depth. Ingram suited up for St. Paul High School in Mobile, where he rushed for 1,394 yards and 18 touchdowns on 235 carries and hauled in 15 receptions for 195 yards and another TD in his senior season before the 6-foot-1, 195-pounder signed with the Chippewas in 2020 as a 3-star. Ingram’s high school coach at St. Paul’s Steve Mask said, “Jordon is one of the best players we’ve had here,” and that’s saying something considering the amount of talent the Mobile high school produces.

Another offensive position group that may have some cause for concern, but not so much with depth as it is inexperience is the wide receiver room. Quite frankly, it’s been a while since Auburn rolled out a wide receiver corps that was this inexperienced after Anthony Schwartz and Seth Williams both entered the 2021 NFL Draft instead of returning to the plains for their senior years.

New Auburn wide receiver coach Cornelius Williams will be tasked with quickly developing the young but talented group of pass-catchers. The Tigers’ two most talented returning receivers are a couple sophomores in 6-foot-4, 214-pound Elijah Canion and 6-foot-4, 195-pound Ze’Vian Capers. Canion saved the last game of his true freshman season for his best when he had three catches for 80 yards, and a touchdown in the Citrus Bowl vs. Northwestern. Capers, however, saw the most playing time among freshman receivers in 2020, but fell victim to a left foot injury in the Citrus Bowl, which required surgery. The Alpharetta native missed all of spring practice as he continued to rehabilitate, but all signs point to his much needed return for the 2021 season.

Other prospects that Auburn is going to need to step up among the receivers are a trio of sophomores in Ja’Varrius Johnson, Malcom Johnson Jr., Kobe Hudson, and redshirt freshman J.J. Evans. Senior Shedrick Jackson will be the veteran of the group, although he’s been predominantly used as a blocker during the course of his career under the former regime. I think it’s a safe bet that in 2021 Jackson will surpass in one season his career totals for the last three years after collecting 10 receptions for 130 yards.

The deepest and most experienced offensive position group that Harsin and Bobo will have at their disposal in 2021 is at tight end. Most Auburn fans are probably unaware that the tight end position still exists considering how seldom they were used as pass-catchers under the last regime. However, that shouldn’t be the case under the new one. In fact, you could see as many as three tight ends on the field at the same time in some offensive sets under the new staff.

6-foot-3, 241-pound senior John Samuel Shenker is the veteran of the group after tallying 15 catches for 158 yards and 2 touchdowns in his career on the plains, but a trio of sophomores in 6-foot-5, 255-pound Luke Deal, 6-foot-5, 240-pound Tyler Fromm, and 6-foot-7, 267-pound Brandon Frazier should all see significant roles for the Tigers in 2021. Fan favorite, 6-foot-3, 308-pound sophomore J.J. Pegues was moved from tight end to defensive tackle this spring by the new staff. The Tigers also add a new addition to the tight end room this summer with 6-foot-5, 220-pound incoming freshman signee Landen King out of Texas.

Former Vanderbilt head coach and new Auburn defensive coordinator Derek Mason will have less question marks on his side of the ball, so whether Auburn meets, exceeds, or falls under expectations in 2021 will largely depend on the improvements made on offense.

Never the less, our next feature will put Mason’s new Auburn defense under the microscope in an effort to show Auburn fans what to expect in 2021. Like his predecessor, Mason is considered one of the top defensive minds in all of college football, and was arguably one of the best defensive coordinator hires in the country this offseason.

All in all, Tiger fans should be excited about Harsin and their new staff entering the 2021 season, because mediocrity was becoming the norm on the plains under the former regime. If Harsin can unveil a program built on a foundation of player development and competitive consistency, Auburn fans may have found someone to eventually lead them back to college football euphoria.

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