There was disappointment in Bryan Harsin’s voice, some frustration too. But there was something else in the first-year Auburn’ coach’s tone after his team’s 24-point loss to rival Georgia.
There was a bit of admiration.
Harsin doesn’t like losing; no one does, but as his team fell to the Bulldogs, 34-10, on Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium, the Tigers’ new coach couldn’t help but look across the field and admire what Kirby Smart has built at Georgia.
“Very good football team — the type of team we want to be,” Harsin said of Georgia. “We want to be in that position. That’s where we want Auburn football to be, to have a chance to go into every single game and be able to win, be able to do all the things on special teams, offense and defense that we know we’re capable of doing on a consistent basis.”
That’s what Georgia did in the 126th installment of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, as it has done all season while making a case as the nation’s top team. It’s what the Bulldogs have largely done in this rivalry game since Smart took over the program, winning six of seven against Auburn, including each of the last five.
The last two seasons in particular have shown just how far Georgia has come under Smart, and where the Bulldogs are relative to their cross-division rival, now in Year 1 of the Harsin era. Georgia has outscored Auburn, 61-16, in the last two meetings while holding the Tigers to 85 rushing yards combined in those games.
The Bulldogs have also won their division in three of the previous four seasons and are in the driver’s seat for another one this year, as Smart has elevated the program to the upper echelon of college football. He has done that with elite recruiting and development, which has produced the results on the field — all things Harsin understands he needs to do to close that gap between Auburn and its longstanding rival and get the Tigers competing for championships.
“That’s the success model, in my opinion, of the type of program we want to have and we want it to look like,” Harsin said. “Georgia has been able to do that.”
While Harsin did not say the Auburn job was a rebuilding mission, which he said implies they’re looking toward the future and not playing for anything this season, the first-year coach acknowledged the focus of Year 1 was and is to lay a foundation for what he wants the Auburn program to be.
GOODMAN: At least Harsin isn’t delusional
“As you look at a team like Georgia and my point behind that, Kirby has done a good job,” Harsin said. “…That model of consistency and other teams like that, that’s exactly what we want to create here at Auburn. We want to be a team that has consistency like that. We want to be a team that is able to put this program in a position every single year to play for championships. We’ve said that. That’s the goal. The goal is to be that type of program.”
Auburn isn’t there yet, though. Even as quarterback Bo Nix insisted the gap between the two programs is slimmer than the final margin on the scoreboard indicated, saying “maybe two or three more plays go in our favor — we’re capable of hanging in there with that Georgia team,” Saturday’s result reinforced that there’s still work to be done.
Harsin knows that, and it begins again Sunday when the team reconvenes at the athletics complex to regroup, learn from its loss and turn the page to next week’s trip to Arkansas.
The result against Georgia will sting. Rivalry game losses always do. And while Harsin saw up close the model of consistency in Georgia that he will strive to establish at Auburn, there was something else he expressed postgame along with that disappointment and frustration and admiration.
“We need to spend time with this team and this program to continue to keep developing it,” Harsin said. “So yeah, I’m encouraged that we get to keep doing that, and I get excited about that as much as it hurts to not win and have the type of success that you worked hard to get, it’s still encouraging to have a chance to come back and do it again and to fix those problems and to work hard at developing drills and coaching points that can really make a difference for the players. That’s our job. Our job is to get the very best out of every player on this team, and they want it.”
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
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