AUBURN | Derek Mason was planning to return to the NFL. He had already turned down interest from other college programs.
But that changed when Bryan Harsin called.
Yes, Mason and Harsin had a prior relationship going back a number of years that includes several NIKE trips together with their families. But that’s not the main reason why he’s Auburn’s current defensive coordinator.
Or at least not the most important in my eyes. Mason explained it last week and his words still resonate with me.
“So, when we had an opportunity to talk, the conversation was very much to the point about his vision for Auburn,” Mason said. “And that vision was set in stone, it was very strategic, it had all the making of what I thought a good leader should talk about coming into a situation like this. Which I thought was unique.
“For him to get me to come up here on my way home — because believe me, I was on my way back home — we got to come through here, sat down for a couple of hours. Had a chance to talk ball, but it was more about connecting on, like, the ideology of how he wanted to run the program and what he wanted and what he needed from me.”
Mason is a 51-year old coach with 27 years of coaching experience in college and the NFL including seven as the head coach at Vanderbilt. His reverential words about a coach seven years his junior really stands out.
I’ve covered Auburn and a number of coaches over the last 20 years, and have never heard one coach speak about another in such specific and venerable terms.
A vision for Auburn that is strategic and unique.
I’m not sure exactly what that is but it’s certainly something that a school like Auburn, which competes in the SEC West and plays Alabama, LSU and Georgia every season could use.
And while I’m not into coach worship, I’m certainly intrigued and looking forward to seeing exactly what Harsin’s vision produces over the next few years.
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Auburn baseball’s 0-6 start in the SEC including five losses by two runs or less is quite easy to diagnose.
Sure, anytime a team loses five close games, there are going to be several key moments or decisions that stand out. But when it comes to this year’s Auburn team, nothing stands out more than the injuries to the pitching staff.
Auburn’s projected top three starters — Cody Greenhill, Jack Owen and Richard Fitts — have yet to all start on a weekend together. Greenhill and Fitts managed to start together for the first two weekends before Greenhill injured his foot and then Fitts suffered the same injury a week later.
Owen had been out all season until working out of the bullpen the last two weekends. Fitts is back in the bullpen now too, and one or both could be close to returning to the weekend rotation, but it’s still going to take time for them to reach their peak form.
On top of those three, AU has been without its best returning reliever, Carson Skipper, since March 7 and one of its most effective relievers this season, Hayden Mullins, since March 14. Both could return this weekend at No. 2 Arkansas.
Over the previous 150 games, the Tigers have won more than 80 percent of their games when they score five or more runs. AU has done that in four of six conference games this season and lost each one.
That’s pitching.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 41 years and the hire of an unknown singer from a band called Geordie, which led to one of the greatest albums of all-time and changed the trajectory for one of the greatest rock bands of all time. On March 29, 1980, Brian Johnson was hired by AC/DC to replace the deceased Bon Scott. Four months later, the band released Back in Black, which has sold over 50 million copies making it the second best-selling album in music history behind only Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The album has been certified 25x Platinum and ranked No. 77 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
AC/DC was formed in Sydney, Australia in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, and released seven albums before the death of Scott due to alcohol poisoning on Feb. 19, 1980 at age 33. The band briefly considered breaking up but were encouraged by Scott’s parents to continue and hired Johnson from several candidates after a second rehearsal. The band quickly turned to writing and recorded Back in Black in the Bahamas during April and May of 1980. They made the album cover all black in a tribute to Scott.
The album had a number of hit songs such as Hells Bells, which includes the lines, "I'm rolling thunder, pourin' rain. I'm comin' on like a hurricane,” which referred to the multiple tropical storms that disrupted their recording sessions. The title song and lead single, Back in Black, was written as a tribute to Scott. It was Johnson who came up with the line, “Nine lives. Cats eyes. Abusing every one of them and running wild.” Metal Hammer magazine ranks the Back in Black opening guitar riff as one of the best of all time. VH1 ranks the song the 4th best metal song of all time.
