First-year head coach Bryan Harsin and recently benched quarterback Bo Nix are surfing on a wave of unrelenting support from the Auburn fan base following the team’s historic and gutsy win over the Bayou Bengals in Baton Rouge on Saturday.
Now, days away from one of the biggest games of either of their careers, Harsin and Nix have a unique opportunity to extend that wave to uncharted waters and win over a large portion of the still-hesitant Auburn fan base.
Auburn hasn’t beaten Georgia since 2017; Bo Nix was still a junior in high school the last time the Tigers celebrated a victory over their oldest rival. Four years later, Nix and company have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to break two Auburn streaksback-to-back after crumbling Auburn’s 22-year winless drought in Baton Rouge on Saturday.
Harsin’s first year as head coach has been up and down. He coached up an unexpected 60-10 mauling of Akron in Week 1 only to need a miracle finish to glide past a supremely under-talented Georgia State team in Week 4. But all in all, Auburn is a single goal-line play away from a 5-0 record.
If Harsin can scrape together a Top-3 win this weekend, an area where his predecessor succeeded early in his Auburn tenure, a lot of the still-hesitant Auburn fans would buy into the fourth-and-one mentality that Harsin is trying to instill.
Georgia is the perfect opponent.
Coming off a stupidly convincing 37-0 win over what was thought to be a Top 10 talented Arkansas team, Georgia looks as menacing as ever, if not the most it’s ever looked. Aside from Alabama, Georgia is primed to be one of the easiest locks for Southeastern Conference and playoff contention.
If Harsin can beat a team better than the one’s Gus Malzahn faced in his time on the Plains, Auburn fans will have a lot less to question when it comes to the freshest face of the SEC, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Even in a loss, if Auburn's offense can show the slightest continuous pulse against a terrifyingly talented Bulldog defense, the Auburn Family's worries about a less-than-productive offense will be highly diminished.
The flip side; Auburn gets absolutely blown out on both sides of the ball in a similar fashion to No. 8 Arkansas this weekend and people wonder if LSU was just a less-talented opponent. In that case, Harsin and the heart-attack Tigers may have to slip past another high-level opponent later in the season in order to gain the level of support that Auburn fans thinks he deserves.
And trust me, there are plenty to choose from. (I’m looking at you, Bama)
But if Auburn can win on Saturday, Harsin and Nix can expect to deservedly earn a lot more support from the Tiger's more-than-dedicated fan base.
Breaking the 22-year curse was a start, but the Harsin squad has a lot tougher teams on the horizon.
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Larry is a senior studying journalism with a minor in sociology. He is from Enterprise, Alabama and is in his third year with The Auburn Plainsman.
Twitter: @ReportingLarry
