COLUMBIA, Mo. — By now, Bryan Harsin should be used to the second-guessing.
Just weeks after a bumpy debut season as Auburn’s head football coach, Harsin was the subject of an internal university investigation into rampant player and staff turnover under Harsin’s watch. It was no secret influential boosters were unhappy with Harsin’s hire from the start. The unrest only bolstered some concerns about his fitness for the job.
By the end of the investigation, Harsin, 45, came out employed but not unscathed.
With chief rivals Alabama and Georgia dominating the sport, Auburn’s tolerance for losing football is famously low — his predecessor, Gus Malzahn, was fired despite winning 66% of his games — and anything close to a shaky start this fall figured to put Harsin squarely back in the crosshairs of booster angst.