Saturdays in Athens
GEORGE SOMERVILLE – THE TOUCHDOWN SEC CORRESPONDENT
Saturday 5th November 2022
As the say on this side of the pond – “remember, remember the 5th November”! Well there have been fireworks amongst the SEC this week, and with the match up between the nation’s top two teams (no SEC bias here), there are sure to be even more pyrotechnics after today’s slate of games is over.
In this week’s news, Bryan Harsin is out at Auburn, Kiffin & Jimbo won’t be sending each other Christmas cards, who will get the Tigers job, and there is the small matter of a Georgia v Tennessee match up! As they say in these parts, Gah-lee!
So let’s get straight to it – Here are this weeks headlines….let’s get started y’all!
Harsin out!
Auburn, al
The worst kept secret (if indeed it was a secret) in College football played out this week when the Auburn Tigers fired their head coach, Bryan Harsin.
While Harsin’s record as a college head coach is 85-36 which includes his roles at Arkansas State and Boise, his record at Auburn is a much less impressive 9-12. Which for a program like Auburn where expectations are to stand shoulder to shoulder with in state rivals Alabama is unacceptable.
Stories and rumours surrounded Harsin. His inability – or perhaps unwillingness – to fit in to the Southern culture speak volumes about Harsin’s tumultuous time at Auburn. And the press statements issued from both the Auburn athletics department and Bryan Harsin himself speak volumes of the rift which eventually exposed itself between the parties.
Nowhere in the Auburn statement does the name of their former head coach feature. Not even a “thanks for the endeavours”; a simple “Auburn University has decided to make a change in the leadership of the Auburn University football program” was the introduction of the statement from University president Christopher Roberts.
The “response” if it can be called that from Harsin was swift and also in the form of a statement. It was typical in thanking the coaching staff and players – wishing all best wishes for the future. But one line in the statement told a thousand words,
“There are good people throughout this program and University. With complete alignment, the possibilities are endless”.
Which of course points to the outside pressures which Harsin has felt since he arrived on the Plains. Indeed this week in several articles, mostly local Alabama outlets, boosters have been widely quoted about how unfit for purpose Harsin’s appointment was.
Where does Auburn go from here? Well, almost certainly this will be the feature in next week’s column – but read on for some current thoughts on the job.
#WarDamnEagle
musical chairs!
auburn, al
Staying on the Plains, the next question from Auburn fans is who will replace Bryan Harsin?
As you might imagine, this is a subject debated hotly with a wide variety of candidates touted as the ideal replacement. But in amongst this varied bunch there are a few names which just won’t go away.
One of which is Lane Kiffin. Kiffin is doing an exceptional job at Ole Miss, which has attracted envious stares from the state next door.
Kiffin did his best to shut down this speculation this week saying,
“we’re extremely happy here and got something special going. We’ve got great support here from the Administration and the Chancellor, so we’re just trying to get better”
said Kiffin during this week’s SEC head coaches teleconference.
What was also interesting is the next name on the list. Deion Sanders is subject to a lot of social media chatter and appears rightly or wrongly to be this week’s favourite candidate. Hot on the heels of rebuffing his chances of taking the Tigers job, Kiffin was also asked about Sanders taking the job,
“I think he’d do great”
said Kiffin on his thoughts on Sanders being offered the role,
“he’s a great name – they should hire him. He’s a great recruiter – this is a different world that we are in right now, because recruiting has always been important but now you have the portal”
What Kiffin said next gave a great insight into how the coaching role in college football has changed in recent terms,
“you can change a roster faster than you ever could before. And you can lose a roster faster than you ever could before. So the ability to hire Deion and have that name right away with portal, people wanting to come play for him right away or flip a roster where before realistically it would take 2 to 3 years to truly turn a roster around. You can do it immediately”.
Alternatives
Another couple of names have built momentum in the last few days – Liberty’s Hugh Freeze and Baylor’s offensive co-ordinator Jeff Grimes finding themselves on the lips of fans across the state.
Liberty football administrators are looking pretty good at this point, having just extended Freeze’s contract by an incredible 8 years – paying hime a touch shy of $5m per year. So if Auburn want the ex-Ole Miss coach, then they will have to pay handsomely for his services.
Given that Auburn have shelled out to the best part of $50m to rid themselves of the last three coaches (including the services of interim head coach Kevin Steele), then one assumes that they will pay for Freeze. Question is, is Freeze the guy for the job? There is no question that Freeze has reinvented himself at Liberty after his time at Ole Miss. So if he can be forgiven for his non-footballing sins during his time in Oxford, then he could be a good fit.
Grimes would ordinarily be considered an outsider. However, he has a Tigers connection – having been at Auburn before as offensive line coach as a part of Gene Chizik’s National Championship winning team in 2010. Grimes was in Auburn from 2009-2012. So he has an affinity with the school, something that Harsin did not.
Baylor are on the rise back to where they should be under head coach Dave Aranda, and Grimes has been a key part of this success. He has been shortlisted for the Frank Broyles award (CFB’s best assistant coach) at both BYU and Baylor, underlining the job he has been doing thus far.
So while Grimes might not be the big name hire, he certainly has the resume for the job.
What or who do Auburn fans and boosters want? Well that’s the million dollar question. You better ask them….
#Wardamneagle
Kiffin strikes back
Oxford, ms
You may recall the warm sunny days of summer when the head coaches of Alabama and Texas A&M had quite the public spat, over Saban’s accusations of the Aggies buying their 5* recruiting class via NIL payments.
During this quite incredible verbal jousting, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin also weighed in on the Aggies recruiting techniques. Fisher responded to Kiffin’s comments by calling him a “clown show”.
I collectively refresh our memories of this, because it transpires that Kiffin did not forget. In fact, the Ole Miss head coach has the memory of an elephant and reminded us all after the Rebels rolled into College Station to defeat the Aggies 31-28.
Kiffin was ecstatic after the result but couldn’t resist a further pop at Jimbo Fisher. Speaking to SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic pitch side immediately after the final whistle, Kiffin said,
“I mean, 390 yards rushing against a bunch of five-stars is pretty good,”
when asked what he might wear for Halloween. Kiffin responded with a typically Kiffin-esque response.
“Maybe Jimbo has a Joker outfit for me,”
#HottyToddy
“Maybe Jimbo has a Joker outfit for me.”
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) October 30, 2022
Lane Kiffin interviews never disappoint 😂 @SECNetwork pic.twitter.com/eeWsf6I332
Vols on top
Athens, GA
This weekend, the 8-0 Tennessee Vols travel into Athens to play the 8-0 Georgia Bulldogs in what is being described as game of the day, the season, the century depending on who you listen to.
However, this is a matchup which deserves all of the pre game hype. Two undefeated teams from the same conference essentially at the stage of the season, in a winner takes all scenario – certainly as far as the SEC East goes. But the outcome of the game also has significant CFP ramifications.
The first batch of CFP rankings appeared this week amidst the fanfare of the usual controversy that these rankings provoke. Notwithstanding the fact that no teams fans are happy unless they are ranked #1, Tennessee sits atop the rankings – the first time that the Vols have been top of the pile since 1998. In fact Tennessee is now the 5th SEC team to be ranked at #1 in the current version of the play off committee, with the other teams being Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi State and LSU. In this current format which has been in play since 2014, no other conference has had two #1 teams ranked.
Tennessee fans will be quick to tell you that back in 1998 when the Vols were last atop the rankings, they went on to win the BCS Championship title. So is this kismet?
Can the Vols defeat the Dawgs on their home patch? Well, that’s a tall order. I’ll let you know how this goes next week…
Tennessee will play Georgia in Athens on Saturday 5th at 3.30pm ET.
GAME OF THE YEAR 🔜🏈
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 4, 2022
No. 1 @Vol_Football
No. 3 @GeorgiaFootball#MartyAndMcGee #SECNation pic.twitter.com/lIkLmxepJr
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
A GLASWEGIAN LIVING IN LONDON, GEORGE IS A COLLEGE FOOTBALL FAN WHO FOLLOWS THE ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE. HE PROVIDES CFB CONTENT FOR THE TOUCHDOWN AND IS ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST.