Article: SDS "Its not you, Bryan Harsin, It's simply the Auburn Way"

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We’ve seen this at Auburn for the better part of four decades now, and the playbook for change never ever wavers.

Attack professionally, attack personally, attack character and integrity.

Then write a fat buyout check and start over.

“I’ve coached everywhere and have seen everything,” a former Auburn assistant coach told me. “But I’ve never seen a more dysfunctional place.”

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To understand how we got to this point after 1 season under Harsin is to understand the Auburn Way. Which, of course, is not to be confused with the Auburn Family.

A university overflowing with genuine, salt-of-the-earth people (Auburn Family), overrun by a select few big on cash and short on principle (Auburn Way).

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Terry Bowden, Tommy Tuberville, Gene Chizik, Gus Malzahn. All had winning records as coaches at Auburn, all either won a national title, played for a national title or coached an unbeaten season.

All were forced out.

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In December of 1992, on the day he was hired, Terry Bowden says he was given a ledger by a holdover assistant coach from the former staff that detailed player names and money owed to each, and the plan to continue the process.

I know this because I’ve seen the very ledger Bowden took from his office the day he resigned in 1998. I sat in Bowden’s home office in Orlando years ago, and saw the names and the numbers and how business was done at Auburn.

“See that look on your face?!” Bowden screamed. “Same look I had on my face when first saw it!”

Bowden said he told the assistant coach to pay off the players, and never do it again. Now, fast forward 30 years to Harsin, and the culture shift from the day he accepted the job.

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