Auburn football: What are realistic expectations for Bryan Harsin in Year 1 with Tigers?
By John Buhler
Bryan Harsin’s Auburn football team is tasked with navigating a brutal schedule in 2021.
When the Auburn football program was able to get former Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin to leave his alma mater, you could tell Harsin and Auburn athletic director Allen Greene were serious about making big changes in their careers.
For Harsin, he was willing to leave a dream job at Boise State to compete in a conference where it just means more. As for Greene, he was able to land an excellent head coach nobody saw coming and one that will hopefully buck the trend of consistent manipulation by the Auburn boosters. Harsin has big shoes to fill, as Gus Malzahn went 6-4 in his final season at Auburn.
How good can Auburn be in Bryan Harsin’s first year with the Tigers?
Though Harsin does inherit an excellent football team and really good situation at Auburn, the Tigers have one of the most brutal schedules in the SEC in 2021. While he did assemble a terrific staff with former Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason as his defensive coordinator and former South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, anything better than 8-4 would be remarkable.
There are seven games Auburn has to win under Harsin in year one, three in the non-conference and four in SEC play. Those non-conference games are vs. Akron, Alabama State and Georgia State all at home. The four SEC games in question are at Arkansas, home vs. Mississippi State, home vs. Ole Miss and at South Carolina. Auburn could maybe win two of their five remaining games.
The non-conference game in question is at Penn State. If they are going to win two of the remaining five to get to 9-3 on the year, this road date with the Nittany Lions has to be one of them. As for the other four games in question, they must take one of the following: Home vs. Alabama, home vs. Georgia at LSU and at Texas A&M. Being at home in the first two helps a ton.
Should Auburn won eight or nine games under Harsin in year one, that would be a great start.
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