The joy for Alabama football fans to make fun of the Auburn Tigers is close to limitless. Other SEC football teams are Crimson Tide rivals, but the antipathy between the Tide and Tigers is different.
Many fans are born into Tide or Tigers’ tribal membership. As a result, it feels normal to root against any and all things associated with the ‘other’ side.
For Alabama fans disparaging Auburn is sometimes too easy. This is one of those periods, when paying attention to Auburn has become tedious for Crimson Tide fans.
Yet Auburn is in such disarray, similar to seeing a car wreck in a race, it is impossible to look away.
The title of this post suggests the possibility of a positive future for the Tigers. The same cannot be said for Bryan Harsin.
SEC Football and Bryan Harsin
The recruiting of SEC football players is proving to be too much for Bryan Harsin. Proof of that is provided by On3.com’s new algorithm for calculating Team Rankings for each recruiting cycle. On3 has a different format that uses multiple data sources but is not skewed by the number of verbal commits.
Using that calculation for Team Rankings, the top five 2023 classes are currently held by Ohio State, Notre Dame, Alabama, Texas and Georgia. Scroll down the list of 96 FBS teams whose results are sufficient for a calculation and the Auburn Tigers will not be found.
Drill down on just the SEC football teams and 13 teams are ranked with scores of 92.483, for Alabama at No. 1, to 85.313, for Vanderbilt at No. 13. Auburn at No. 14, has no Team Ranking score.
It is almost six months until the Early Signing Period. Auburn will get more recruits to augment its current 2023 class of two players. The Tigers might even finish in the middle of the SEC football pack, in terms of recruiting.
What are the Auburn faithful saying? Andrew Hughes, writing for FlyWarEagle.com said,
"The Tigers have been rapidly losing ground on the recruiting trail in the two years Harsin has been Auburn football HC, descending to the point where a big-name Class of 2023 addition would be considered a savior."
Hughes tries to be optimistic, but in a more recent post, Hughes suggested Auburn needs to consider a change of head coach.
"One of the more popular theories about the Auburn football head coaching job in 2023 and beyond, particularly if Bryan Harsin and co. fail to exceed their 5.5 over/under win total in 2022, is Gus Malzahn returning to the Plains after a confidence-building stint with UCF."
Alabama fans would love a Malzahn return to Auburn. While he might be an upgrade over Bryan Harsin, Malzahn was never a top recruiter. A return to relevance for Auburn will require a whole bunch of high-level recruits or transfers. There is no indication that is in Auburn’s future.
Auburn’s two verbal commits in the 2023 class are 4-Star, Terrance Love, ranked No. 185 overall and 3-Star, Bradyn Joiner, ranked No. 433 overall. Joiner is from Auburn, AL.