Ole Miss loses to Alabama, Auburn dysfunction on full display
Ole Miss loses in hoops and some discussion on the Bryan Harsin situation
Hope everyone has had a good week. We’ve got a pair of new podcasts out. Former Andy Kennedy staffer Bracken Ray and and I did our weekly SEC hoops chat. You can check that out here or anywhere you get podcasts.
Collin Brister and I did a preview of the Ole Miss baseball team with opening day being just eight days away. You can check that out here or anywhere you get podcasts.
We’ve got a variety of things to discuss from more staff turnover to drama in Auburn and a pretty wild golf update.
Joiner goes for 33 in loss to Alabama
Ole Miss gave up 97 points in a 14-point loss to Alabama last night, despite Jarkel Joiner going for 33 points in his second game back after missing five weeks with a back injury. A couple of thoughts.
Ole Miss was never winning this game with the way it defended Alabama. Jaden Shackelford and the Alabama guards torched Ole Miss on the perimeter. Shackleford had 30 points. He was 10-17 from the field and 8-13 from three. He only got to the free throw line twice. It was a steady dose of jumpers and Ole Miss wasn’t able to do anything with him.
The Rebels have been a pretty good defensive team for the majority of this season. From a sheer results standpoint, last night was their worst output. I was a little surprised by how this played out, mostly because Alabama is relatively unimpressive in the frontcourt and I didn’t think they’d have much of an advantage there. But it didn’t matter because the Tide’s guards were much better than Ole Miss’s and won the game handily.
Joiner was really good in this game and it’s a shame for him the effort was wasted. Despite his inability to consistently beat SEC defenders off the bounce and get to the rim, he’s become a really good spot up shooter. Joiner was 12-20 from the field and 6-10 from three point range. It makes you wonder what this offense would look like with a healthy Daeshun Ruffin as the primary ball handler and Joiner playing off the ball. It would give Kermit Davis a bit more offensive freedom to run different action for Joiner, as well as get Ruffin in pick-and-roll situations, which he was becoming pretty efficient in before his injury. Having both of them healthy likely wouldn’t have changed much for this team from a record as far is its postseason outlook. I think there are too many other holes and missed evaluations on this flawed roster. But it certainly would’ve been more fun to watch and the Rebels would likely be a middle of the pack(ish) team in the SEC.
The previous note does mean that this staff has something to build around next year if they are able to keep both guys around along with Matthew Murrell. The roster needs to be built better around the trio. That is ultimately what will determine the fate of Davis and this coaching staff. They need to go find shooting in the portal, as well as more frontcourt depth. It’s easier said than done, but it’s also easier when you don’t take three high school kids that many viewed as mid-major players — you know, like they did last year. The clock is ticking in that regard. Joiner going off for 33 last night only further hammers the point home that it is flawed roster construction plaguing a team that has some pieces.
The Rebels travel to Columbia to face Missouri on Saturday night. That one is a 7:30 p.m. tip.
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Harsin returns from vacation and into the circus ring
We’ve discussed this on the podcast some, but I don’t think I have written about the Bryan Harsin situation in this space. To quickly summarize this whole thing, National Signing Day was last Wednesday. Shortly after Auburn signed zero players and weakly closed out what looked to be a pretty promising class after their haul during the December period, reports began to surface that Harsin’s immediate future was in question. Was that solely due to what happened on Signing Day? Of course not. Did it play a part? Sure. So did going 6-7 in year one and blowing the Iron Bowl in the fashion that the Tigers did. But a 6-6 regular season in year one and an average signing class is not severe enough to put a second-year head coach on the chopping block. That sounds insane on the surface. So, why is this happening? The short answer is Auburn’s booster culture.
You might remember a little over a year ago when Harsin was hired, the Auburn coaching search was a bit of a clown show and it was largely due to those pulling the strings behind the scene.
When Gus Malzahn was fired in November of 2020, it was the culmination of a three-year battle to oust a man that won the SEC West twice and was 3-5 against the greatest dynasty in the history of the sport. Auburn’s boosters are impatient. There are also more boosters that have significant say (and real power) in decision making than you see at a lot of schools. That typically breeds dysfunction, and that is largely what you’ve gotten from Auburn athletics over the last decade or so. Remember in 2017 when Malzahn won the SEC West for the second time but still lost four games? He was awarded a sizeable contract extension after that year, close to $49 million and almost $37 million of that guaranteed. By the end of a 7-5 season the next year there were rumblings (even if they weren’t realistic) that Auburn was prepared to scrape together over $30 million to send him packing. That didn’t end up happening and Malzahn lasted two more seasons, but the sheer idea of that being a possibility gives you a glimpse of the impatience. Some might even call it Saban Derangement Syndrome.
Anyway, when Malzahn was fired, the next step of the plan was apparently to stage a coup to make then defensive coordinator Kevin Steele the next head coach. Guess who wasn’t on board with that idea? Auburn Athletic Directory Alan Greene, who was poised to make his first football coaching hire since taking over an SEC athletic department. An internal battle ensued, and Greene, to his credit, somehow won that battle and hired Harsin. Those fueds rarely go in favor of the AD (see Matt Luke hire, though that wasn’t exactly the same thing). Harsin wasn’t Greene’s first choice, but he was at least Greene’s choice — or, in other words, he wasn’t the boosters’ choice.
So, fast forward a year later and the head coach that wasn’t the choice of the most dysfunctional booster group in the SEC went 6-7 and lost to Alabama. Do you think those very rich boosters changed their tune? Of course not, and they are using this tumultuous offseason to get their way. Other things have happened to provide them with ammunition, too. Harsin lost both his coordinators. His defensive coordinator, Derek Mason, took a $400,000 pay cut to Oklahoma State. Harsin hired Austin Davis to be his offensive coordinator and Davis quit after less than five weeks on the job. There was a mass exodus of players, 20 in total. Bo Nix, for all his limitations, was Auburn royalty and went as far away from the program as possible to Oregon. Things haven’t gone well, but is that enough to can a guy after a year? I’d argue no, unless, you know, there is a group of angry boosters that didn’t want the guy in the first place and are capitalizing on the opportunity to make the situation as untenable as possible.
There were also other, more salacious rumors about the off-field behavior of Harsin and how he’s. . . well, perhaps not exactly a great fit in southern culture, to put it nicely. Think of something on the Bobby Petrino-Hugh Freeze spectrum if you still can’t pick up what I am putting down. Auburn’s athletic department (and whatever the school’s governing entity is) put out a couple of bizarre and bland statements like this one below.
What does any of that actually mean? I think it means “we are looking for anything we can to fire this guy for cause so we don’t have to pay his $19 million dollar buyout.” Harsin is no saint in all of this, but that’s a really bad look for Auburn. They’ve somehow managed to make a fairly incompetent coach look like the good guy in all of this. Who the hell fires a coach in February? Better yet, who spends a week looking for a scandalous-enough reason to fire a second-year head coach in February? Why not behave like a normal booster mafia and just make the guy a lame duck for the 2022 season and can him in November? Impatience, I guess.
Keep in mind that of this played out while Harsin was on vacation in Mexico. Can you imagine sitting at a resort pool while your employer is turning over every stone to fire you for cause? If Harsin’s background is scandal-free, or at least doesn’t contain anything concretely provable, then I imagine that, in a weird way, it had to be a somewhat comforting position to be in: either fire me and give me $19 million or I will continue to do my job. Seems like two decent options. Hell, I’d rather have the $19 million and get away from this toxic program and then re-evaluate my options.
He returned earlier this week to attend the SEC coaches meetings in Birmingham.
So, where does this all stand? Anyone who is plugged in at Auburn is saying that Harsin will be fired in the coming days. Maybe it drags out another week or two. Who knows. But there is no realistic way Auburn negotiates a reduced buyout. Harsin would be an idiot to even entertain that idea, unless he really does have something to hide.
If and when he is fired, who would want this job given how all of this played out? Of course someone will take one of the 15 best jobs in the business, but I doubt any elite-level coach with options is stepping into this mess. Again, it’s also February. It’s going to be hard to pull a sitting head coach away from their current gig with spring football just a couple of weeks away. It’ll be fascinating to see who they hire because it sounds like a coaching search is inevitable. Auburn’s booster culture has made it the most dysfunctional program in the SEC West.
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A incredible, wild story on PGA Tour pro Morgan Hoffman
If you are new here, I will periodically share a good longform story when I come across one and this piece certainly qualifies. Daniel Rapaport of Golf Digest wrote tremendous story on former PGA Tour player Morgan Hoffman, who now lives in the middle of the jungle in Costa Rica in a house with no doors or windows, drinks his own urine and spends most of his days surfing and meditating.
Now, some background here: Morgan Hoffmann isn’t a quack. I promise. He was a legendary amateur player that was the anchor of a couple of really good Oklahoma State (a golf powerhouse) teams. Hoffmann didn’t find as much success in his six years as a pro, but he did record nine top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour and made over $6 million in career earnings. He’s close friends with Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler. He *was* a pretty run of the mill PGA Tour player. In 2016, Hoffmann noticed his chest muscle literally deteriorating to the point of it feeling as if it wasn’t there. He spent nearly a year trying to figure out what was wrong. No one could tell him. He was eventually diagnosed with muscular dystrophy — an incurable disease that erodes the body’s muscles. It’s really a group of diseases. Some forms reduce life expectancy, others don’t but deteriorate quality of life. Hoffmann was basically told there was nothing that could be done and he’d like be in a wheelchair in the next few years. Not knowing where else to turn and feeling completely hopeless, he started researching non-traditional medicine. That’s what led him to living in a jungle in Costa Rica. He now firmly believes western medicine is a scam and that he is curing an incurable disease and says he has proof of it. Eventually, he’d like to return to the PGA Tour. This is an incredible story that is eye-opening, if nothing else, and incredibly well-written. It is worth your time.
Magnolia State golf update:
This one will be a little more brief.
The PGA Tour is in Scottsdale this week for the Phoenix Waste Management Open. This is one of those tournaments that is difficult for PGA Tour rookies to get into. But Hayden Buckley’s fine play over the first 10 events of the year landed him as the 4th alternate. When Webb Simpson withdrew last night, Buckley was in the field. Not only was he in the field, as I am writing this, he is in ESPN+’s feature group with Jon Rahm and Rickie Fowler. The last time he was the last man in the field, it turned out pretty well — he won the Korn Ferry Tour’s Suncoast Classic and began his ascent to where he is today.
This is a tremendous opportunity for Buckley to continue what has been a terrific rookie season so far. Buckley is 3-over thru 11 as of this writing. He tees off at 8:24 tomorrow morning.
The Korn Ferry Tour is in Bogota, Columbia, for the Astara Championship. Two Mississippians are in the field.
Olive Branch native and Ole Miss alum Braden Thornberry show an opening round 1-over 72 and is currently T-117. He tees off at 6:40 a.m. on Friday. Thornberry has made one cut in two tournaments so far this year. He finished in the top-60 in the Korn Ferry Tour points standings last year, good enough to make him fully exempt for this year. He nearly earned his PGA Tour card through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals in the fall, but came up a shot or two short in the final tournament.
Brandon native and Ole Miss alum Jonathan Randolph shot a 2-under 68 and is T-54. He tees off at 7:40 tomorrow morning. Randolph is at a bit of a crossroads in his career. He struggled on the Korn Ferry Tour last year and has partial status this year. One good week could be a life changer for him. He sorely needs it.
On the horizon
Mailbag Friday pod. Send in your questions now.
Friday newsletter on, well, whatever pops up
I have a couple of football feature stories in the works.
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