Bryan Harsin has always been a process-oriented coach. He has his plan, and he doesn’t like to deviate from it.
Everything he does is about being consistent and detailed, day in and day out. Auburn’s bye week was no different, as the Tigers aimed to take advantage of a well-timed week away from one of the most rigorous schedules in the nation while readying themselves for the back stretch of Year 1 under their new head coach. While the bye week provided the team with a chance to take a step back, it was hardly a week off for Auburn; Harsin made sure it was a productive week for the program in several aspects — especially coming off a big road win like the one against Arkansas.
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“We won a really good game against Arkansas, and I think there was a lot of energy coming off that game,” Harsin said. “And, certainly, you feel the momentum as we came back and kind of put that game to bed and moved on to the bye week and got prepared for that. It’s about the mentality of your players. Are we still trying to get better through the bye week? I don’t think we took the bye week for granted.”
So, what did Auburn accomplish during its bye week? First and foremost, the open date provided the Tigers with a chance to heal up physically and mentally. Guys who have been dealing with nagging minor injuries were afforded an opportunity to reduce their reps in practice while focusing on recovery. Harsin did not provide specific injury updates Monday, but he expressed optimism that Auburn could have “a chance to hopefully get some guys back” and ready to go for the final five games of the regular season.
From an on-field standpoint, Auburn practiced three times last week. The sessions weren’t as physical as they have typically been during the season, by design, and while there was focus on what the team needs to work on for the homestretch of its schedule, the Tigers put an emphasis on conditioning, cleaning up fundamentals and providing additional reps for younger players and scout teamers to continue their development within Auburn’s systems and not just scout-team looks. Auburn also did weight-room and conditioning tests to monitor the progress of players from the offseason to now.
“Some of those young guys, right now you can see the development that’s going on in the weight room and some of the extra conditioning things that we’ve been able to do with these guys while they redshirt or play sparingly at this point,” Harsin said. “And so, it was a good week from that standpoint and a good week to see some of that development of those younger players…. Guys tested well in the weight room, and so, now that gives us a little bit more of a foundation for those young players where we can continue to build on that into the offseason.”
Each of Auburn’s three practices were “good,” according to Harsin, and the team carried its effort, focus and energy from the Arkansas win into its approach to the bye week. The Thursday practice featured only two of the team’s coaches on hand — Harsin and assistant head coach Jeff Schmedding — along with graduate assistants and analysts, as the remainder of the staff used the back half of the week to hit the recruiting trail, beginning Wednesday evening.
That aspect of the bye week was crucial for this staff, which has had limited chances for off-campus recruiting since taking over in late December during a pandemic-related dead period. The off week provided a chance to branch out and continue to strengthen relationships with high school coaches throughout the team’s recruiting footprint, which Harsin acknowledged is “vital for our future and success.”
With a skeleton crew of coaches overseeing Thursday’s practice, the onus was on the players and team leadership to make sure they got what they needed to out of the day.
“I don’t think we wasted any time,” Harsin said. “I think the guys conditioned well, so sometimes guys will want to just relax and back off and kind of take a whole week off. We’re just not that — one, that’s not our mentality, and two, I think our players, and certainly we know as a staff, we’re nowhere where we need to be in order for us to have a day where we can just kind of back off. We’re still learning, we’re still developing. We’re still spending a ton of time on just getting some of these basic fundamentals and even schemes and details still installed to the point where we can do them at a consistent, consistent rate.”
By the time Saturday rolled around, Harsin fully turned his attention to Auburn’s next opponent: 10th-ranked Ole Miss. He watched the Rebels’ 31-17 win against LSU and reviewed more film from Ole Miss’ season to date. He took note of LSU’s strong start Saturday, as well as Ole Miss’ impressive response, as the Rebels scored 31 unanswered points to take command of the game by late in the third quarter and cruise to a 31-17 win.
“You could see Ole Miss — offense was on fire, quarterback played well again, defense really came on and played physical, special teams was solid all the way throughout the game,” Harsin said. “They’re 6-1 for a reason.”
The challenge for Harsin and his team now as it returns to its game-week routine is to hand Ole Miss a second loss and remain in contention for the SEC West title. No. 18 Auburn (5-2, 2-1 SEC) will host No. 10 Ole Miss (6-1, 3-1) at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday at 6 p.m. (ESPN).
“I think mentally and just what guys were trying to get done, we had a productive week,” Harsin said. “Now the real key is you’re into a regular week, that Tuesday practice that we’re about to have tomorrow, that needs to be high energy, fast tempo back into that groove that we had going into the Arkansas week. We have to have that.
“To me, that comes back to our consistency as a team, as a staff, and getting right back into the things we know have worked for us and improving on them.”
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
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