AUBURN | For a week in early February, Bryan Harsin’s job was on the line as his football program went under an extensive review including the President’s office bringing in outside counsel.

A month later, cleared of any serious wrongdoing, Harsin met with the media following Auburn’s first spring practice.

Instead of lashing out in anger, the Tigers’ second-year coach spoke first about the positives he took from that week of uncertainty.

“If you want to look back on some of the things that happened, I also took a ton of positives out of it as well,” said Harsin. “As much as there was some negative things, there was more positive. I saw players on our team step up and lead. Talk about player driven. You can talk about it all day and until you're thrown in that situation, until you have to actually come out and stand on your two feet and say something, you never know. I saw players do that. And I saw players set up meetings to go meet with people. To have conversations about our program.

“I saw guys that decided to come back for that reason, to be in that position. I saw coaches do the same thing. I felt that. Got a lot of emails and mail and support and saw that from a lot of people that support Auburn.”

Much of the review took place while Harsin was on vacation with his wife, Kes, in Mexico.

“There’s also other people in my life that need time to recharge too, because they go through this as well. It’s not just me,” Harsin said. “Our families go through it, and that’s not just my family; our coaches’ families, everybody goes through this. In the reality of things, you need time to recharge. So, for me, that was a time that things were happening, but it was also a time for me that I wanted to make sure that my wife and the time we had already planned to have, that she could recharge and that we could do some things that we already planned, because there’s always something that can take you away from it. You just got to make decisions that you’re going to prioritize this and do it, and that’s what you do.”

There was another reason Harsin was able to separate what was happening in Auburn from the time he was spending on vacation.

“But the other part of it, too, we also knew what the truth was,” he said. “We also knew, alright, what was happening. So, part of that, that’s the untold story—that we knew that as well during that time.”

Harsin knows other programs will use it against Auburn in recruiting, but he has a message for any of the players considering the Tigers.

“There's a lot of guys out there that want to be here and there's a lot of families that want their sons to be here, because they want them to be a part of a program like we have, and they want their sons to be a part of things that we believe in, like getting their degree and working hard, being a good person, giving back to the community, doing things the right way and treating people the right way,” said Harsin.

"And those types of things, that stuff still matters.”

Harsin also has a message to the Auburn alumni, students, fans, professors and administration.

“This isn't Auburn vs. Auburn. This is all of us pulling in the same direction,” he said. “Everybody aligned, and trying to help build this football program and put it in a position where we all want it. We all want to play for championships. We all want to win. We all want to graduate every player. We all want to have a great experience. And if we're all going that same direction, people will want to be a part of that.”

Auburn will hold its second spring practice on Wednesday.