By the skin of their teeth, the Auburn Tigers are 3-1. Had they lost at home to Missouri like they should have this past Saturday, they would have been 2-2 and it likely would have been an early end for the Bryan Harsin tenure on The Plains. Now, make no mistake about it: Harsin is as good as gone. So much so to the point where we are already discussing candidates that could take over for him once the Tigers inevitably part ways.
But for now, Bryan Harsin is still the coach of the Auburn Tigers. And unless things go horribly wrong the rest of the way, which of course they could, I expect that to probably be the case for most of the season. As Zac Blackerby said on The Game Plan yesterday, “You’re paying him either way, might as well make him work.”
With the meat of SEC play getting started this week, what is the realistic best case scenario for the Tigers the rest of the season? With LSU coming to town this week, things could certainly get ugly, but it’s not completely out of this world to say that the home Tigers could win.
Am I gonna pick perhaps the most dysfunctional team in college football right now to win this game? Heck no, but it wouldn’t shock me. So let’s just say Auburn takes down LSU and gets to 4-1 before their schedule gets really tough. They go on the road to Georgia after this, which I just can’t see being a close game, and nobody expects it to. They are capable of beating Ole Miss after this, but on the road I just don’t see it.
So in a best case scenario, you are probably looking at 4-3 headed back home for Arkansas, on the road for Mississippi State, and finally back home for Texas A&M, Western Kentucky, and Alabama. While it won’t be easy, it’s not crazy to say in a best case scenario for this team, they could get to six wins and qualify for a bowl game.
In a worst case scenario, they get smoked by LSU and Georgia which leads to a mid-season Bryan Harsin firing and a long finish to a season. Neither result sounds great for Auburn fans, who I’m sure would simply like to hit the fast-forward button and skip to the hiring of their next coach as soon as possible. Who that will be remains to be seen.