247Sports’ Brad Crawford ranks the 15 toughest schedules for this season, based on “projecting the strength of opponents, where games are played and at what point of the season”. In doing so, he notes “Circling back to last season’s most difficult schedules projection during spring practice, only three of 10 teams facing ever-so-daunting slates finished ranked inside the top 25, including Big Ten champion Michigan. Six others were below .500.”
Anywho, coming in at number three on his list is Auburn.
SEC life for Bryan Harsin in Year 2 will again raise questions about his future on The Plains if he makes it out of the 2022 campaign. Auburn has road games against Georgia and Alabama, the two best teams in the country, travels to Ole Miss and hosts Penn State, LSU, Arkansas and Texas A&M — all teams who will likely be ranked at the time of the matchup. That could be seven games against ranked teams if the SEC’s as good as everyone expects. After ending the 2021 season on a five-game losing streak, forward progression is needed amid the turmoil at Auburn.
Boy, the stars sure seem to be aligning for Harsin, don’t they?
Get The Picture 
Maybe they decided to save their money and buy out the schedule?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/bowls/2014/01/02/bcs-bowl-championship-series-florida-state-auburn-bowden-matchup/4281517/
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Fortunately the incessant Bowden saga is mostly a stale, faded memory. If only the same could said of the Mannings.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The only important part was Auburn paying 500k not to get their asses kicked.
Sorry if the article wandered into matters beyond Auburn being cowardly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
He won’t make it through the season.
LikeLike
Neither will Auburn – I see 8 almost certain losses.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t pity him. He will get successful SEC head coach buyout money , even though he wasn’t successful, and is still marketable for another job because he can tell colleges in other parts of the country that Auburn boosters have too much influence and cut his legs out from under him, and that won’t be the case in other parts of the country.
LikeLiked by 3 people
This schedule could be an explanation for why the “investigation” didn’t find anything firable. It may be better to let Harsin take the hit on this schedule and then bring someone new in who won’t have to deal with that in their first year.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Auburn’s boosters probably figure the 2022 record will be the same whether Harsin is there or not
LikeLiked by 4 people
Since assistants are dropping like flies, they’ll have more openings for cheerleaders. Looks like they’re gonna need em.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Harsin has nothing to worry about…with the full support of the University, with a solid core of experienced coordinators and assistant coaches, having recruited a banner class for 2022, the fan base in lockstep with his vision, the players fully on board…no schedule could be too daunting, no season too challenging…I can’t imagine there is anything that would keep that coach up at night.
I read yesterday that the Auburn fans are saying that Bama’s Mike Price situation was far worse than Harsin…but I don’t think Bama spent nearly as much on Price’s room service bill as the Barn will ultimately shell out on the “Harsin” situation.
Auburn sucks.
LikeLiked by 8 people
The family is all in!
LikeLiked by 3 people
He’s a Dead Man Walking. And I’m ok with that.
LikeLiked by 3 people
What a time to be alive!!!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I noticed Penn State mentioned as being a ranked opponent, and I must say that Penn State and especially James Franklin have to be the most overrated in the country. Every year Franklin is mentioned as a top coach and is rumored for essentially every P5 opening, which makes no sense to me given his poor performance.
Penn State went 7-6 last year and is 11-11 over the past two years. That’s, not sure why anyone would naturally assume they would be react, but I’m sure they’ll be propped up yet again in the preseason as always.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I’d say they were better than their record last year. Five of their six losses were by single digits: Iowa (3), Illinois (2), Ohio State (9), Michgan (4), Michigan State (3). Illinois was a bad loss, but the rest are respectable. I expected the Outback Bowl to be a closer game, and they collapsed in the third quarter…not sure what to make out of that because bowl games are weird.
Franklin has them bringing in talent. They’re right with everyone else in the Big Ten from that standpoint (and should be). They lost all their tossups this year. 2020 started out ugly, but that season was really weird in the Big Ten especially. Prior to that, their records looked a lot better. I think this year should tell a lot about whether the program has regressed (been passed by other Big Ten teams?) or will revert to the mean on those close games. They have to go to Michigan but get Ohio State and Michigan State at home. They get Purdue, Northwestern, and Minnesota from the West. They ought to be an Ohio State upset away from competing for the division, but we’ll see.
LikeLike
They also lost at home to lowly Illinois. I mean, come on. Close losses or not, they lost SIX games, including pretty much every close game they played in. That’s a coaching issue. Over the past 4 years, they have averaged 4.5 losses a year…. and that includes a Covid shortened 2020 season in which they only played 9 games.
I’ll stand by my statement that James Franklin is the most overrated coach in all college football, and I swear their fan base suffers some Stockholm Syndrome. They are not all that happy with him, but yet every time JF’s agent rumors him for yet another opening, they freak out about the prospects of losing him. It’s really really weird.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Y’all know way about the Big 10 than is necessary.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now that Dan Mullen is out of coaching you have a much stronger case.
LikeLike
You can add the fact that Franklin is a monumental asshole to his shortcomings as well. I guess the media bias/love for Penn State and the woke/PC kid gloves the media has to use talking about Franklin account for a lot of the love every year.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Franklin is massively overrated. I always get a chuckle when his name is brought up with big opening and left scratching my head and asking “why?”.
Penn St is stuck with him now that he signed a 10 year $70 million dollar contract. Have fun with that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Franklin is the kind of coach that can take bad team and make them good (Vandy). He has not proven he can take a good team and make them great (State Penn).
LikeLiked by 3 people
Combine Auburn’s schedule with their current roster you have the recipe to get a coach fired. The new AD will have plenty of time to select the next winner of the Auburn golden parachute former HC award.
LikeLiked by 6 people
It’s just unfortunate for Harsin that he’s not going to get the irrational contract extension that comes from flash in the pan early success of all Auburn coaches.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d like to see him beat aTm and get a miracle win against Bama to go 8-4 and force AU to keep him around.
LikeLiked by 6 people
That’s what I was thinking, have a season that’s way better than expectations and make the yella fella and the rest of the boo$ter$ eat shit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Harsin is going to paint the turf bright orange and dress the team in monochrome orange to match just so they can hide in “plain” site. Worked elsewhere.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Color me very fucking skeptical the barners will climb from this dumpster fire intact (2-4 years) no matter the color, the prettiest little cesspool on the plains is still a shit hole…#AUBURN SUCKS!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Auburn is the SECs next version of GaTech
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know you’re in the deep shiat when you skip right by hillbillies at Tennessee and go straight to a north ave. trade school comparison.
LikeLiked by 3 people
AU has five home games in a row before they roll into Athens. I’d expect them to be undefeated and ranked when we meet up.
Then the fiery crash back to Earth culminating with his firing and a 7 win season should be glorious to watch.
LikeLike
I could just as easily see them being 2-3 coming into that game. LSU is LSU, Penn State beat them last year, and Eli Drinkwitz knows how to get a coach fired.
LikeLike
First of all, I don’t care for Auburn. That said, I love listening to them whine about having both Georgia and Bama on the road when THEY CREATED THE SITUATION! I’d love to do them a solid and give them consecutive ass-whippings in Sanford Stadium.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Greg McGarity is already trying to give them an extra home game against us to help out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually, the SEC adding Mizzou and aTm created the situation. Nobody wanted UGA to have only 2 SEC games in Sanford every other year..(the years we are home in Jax). Or hell, maybe some of y’all did…you seem to act like it.
LikeLike
Well he’s either fired or the second coming of Saban.
LikeLiked by 1 person
To think that Harsin should have lost to Georgia State…and should have beaten Alabama. I wouldn’t want to know that I had to make a living betting on Auburn next season.
LikeLiked by 2 people