8 thoughts as Bryan Harsin's Auburn football tenure hangs in limbo: Timing, Derek Mason's pay cut and more

AUBURN — As of Wednesday morning, Auburn's comments about the future of its football program came in a statement Monday.

The school is weighing the future of coach Bryan Harsin, who finished 6-7 in his first season and ended on a five-game losing streak. Harsin's harsh mentality that contributed to extensive coach and player turnover and his poor recruiting are among the issues under the microscope.

As the Harsin chronicle drags on, Auburn might be on the clock. Here are eight thoughts on why that is, looking ahead and looking back:

1. Actions speak louder than words, and the loudest action of this entire saga was experienced SEC coach Derek Mason taking a $400,000 pay cut for a Big 12 job after one season with the Tigers.

BRYAN HARSIN: What we know about Bryan Harsin's job status with Auburn Tigers football

BRYAN HARSIN CONTRACT: What a 'for cause' firing means, according to Bryan Harsin's Auburn football contract

2. Auburn cannot afford to lose defensive backs coach Zac Etheridge. He might be the most important assistant on this staff right now. So naturally, Georgia is interested in him for the same job. He’s an Auburn alum, a national champion, and he's a standout recruiter on a staff that needs them. He knows better than anyone what this program is capable of at its best. His status might be extra motivation for the administration to reach a conclusion. Regardless if Harsin is fired, retaining Etheridge should be a priority.

Subscribe to SEC Football Unfiltered
iTunes | Google Play | Spotify

3. The SEC coaches meeting is Thursday in Birmingham. If a decision hasn’t been made by then, does Harsin dare show up business as usual? At any rate, that's another factor that might move this process along.

4. One looming question is — if Auburn keeps Harsin — whether the program can recover with him in charge after such a public mess. Harsin would have to scramble for an offensive coordinator hire, then figure out how to convince transfers to enter an unstable situation to fill the team's remaining scholarships. Auburn’s 19 outgoing transfers are among the most in Power Five. Depth is an urgent problem at several positions. If Harsin is navigating a divided locker room, it’s difficult to imagine a winning 2022 season. Then he’s probably fired anyway. That's the central point to this: Yes, coaches should be afforded more than one year to build a program. But accounting for everything that has happened, would keeping Harsin just be delaying the inevitable?

BRYAN HARSIN: At Auburn football, a divisive and 'dysfunctional' program under Bryan Harsin, sources say

5 SHORTEST SEC TENURES: What history tells us about Auburn football's future if Bryan Harsin is fired after one season

5. On the other hand, firing Harsin means limiting the candidate pool at this late stage. Most teams have just finalized their signing classes, filled any coaching holes and are resting before spring ball. If Harsin goes, he’s going down fighting — his comments to ESPN last week would make it sufficiently challenging for leadership to sell candidates on the job right now. "This place is not going to be a championship program until we change some things," Harsin said. "You've got to let the head coach be the head coach and support him." What coach wants to enter that environment?

CONSIDER THIS: A parable about a football coach, a contract and a for-cause firing

6. Those two points add up to a lose-lose situation, which is a major stumble by Auburn’s leadership any way you cut it. That seems to be the primary reason some fans are up in arms about the concept of firing Harsin: It’s a matter of opposing the high-ranking decision-makers outside the athletics department rather than a full-throttle defense of one coach.

7. If Harsin is standing firm in an attempt to get his full $18.2 million buyout from Auburn, it probably means he’s confident he has done nothing worthy of being fired for cause. And if he hasn't, he deserves the full buyout outlined in his contract. If he is fighting for every penny, though, a reminder the Advertiser reported last week on the coach’s divisive culture, which included his opposition to players profiting off their name, image and likeness, among other things.

8. Ultimately, the naïve idealist in everyone would like to believe college football is about the players. (Everyone knows that's not the reality.) So regardless of what this player thinks of Harsin or what that player thinks — and no opinions should be disregarded — it's disheartening to see senior Nick Brahms pleading on Twitter for an opportunity to meet with the school's decision makers.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Bryan Harsin's Auburn football tenure hangs in limbo: 8 observations