Auburn Football: 3 reasons Bryan Harsin was the wrong hire

3. Hiring Harsin doesn’t justify Malzahn’s buyout

Auburn fans had every right to expect more out of Gus Malzahn during his tenure with the Tigers, but the fact remains that Malzahn is a good football coach who did very well during his time on the Plains. He won 66 percent of his games and had Auburn in position to play for a national championship twice during his eight seasons. The Tigers came within seconds of capturing the 2013 BCS crown, and went into the 2017 SEC Championship with a College Football Playoff berth on the line.

A 6-4 season in 2020 is nothing to write home about, but three of Auburn’s four losses on the year came against top 10 teams: Alabama, Georgia, and Texas A&M. The loss to South Carolina seems to be the defeat that did Malzahn in, but in truth the Auburn boosters have been looking for a reason to fire him the last three offseasons.

Auburn’s SEC West title in 2017 landed Malzahn a hefty raise and contract extension, and boosted his buyout at the same time. Now, Auburn is on the hook for $21 million in order to get rid of a coach with a 68-35 record. If you fire a winning coach, you better be prepared to hit a homerun on the coaching carousel to replace him.

Bryan Harsin is far from a home run, and a major step down from some of the names the Tigers hoped to attract. Sources inside the program can try to save face all they want and pretend that Harsin was at the top of their list, but everyone knows the truth. His name was mentioned with the open Arizona job, but never Auburn until the Tigers swooped in and got a deal done.

Much to the chagrin of their fanbase, Auburn was never going to lure away Urban Meyer from his comfortable desk at FOX. But it seemed likely that they would make a bigger splash after pulling the trigger on Gus than Harsin.

It’s difficult to make the argument that he’s an upgrade over what they had.