BIRMINGHAM | A week ago, Charles Barkley talked about the “tremendous courage” it took for Bryan Harsin to take the Auburn job and take on “King Kong.”

Of course, his King Kong reference is to Nick Saban, who has won six national championships at Alabama including last season.

The pair, along with another Auburn legend, Bo Jackson, golfed together at the Regions ProAm last week. Harsin returned to Birmingham Tuesday to speak to Auburn alumni and fans as part of the 2021 AMBUSH tour.

“I appreciate his comments,” said Harsin. “I heard those things. I've answered this before, it's more about the challenge. I felt strongly about Auburn and the potential to come in here and be the head coach and to put together a staff and to be able to bring players in to do the things that we believe to be successful.

“All the teams we play are good. Everybody's good. And I know what he's saying about Alabama and the type of program that they have and how successful they've been, right here in the state. There's no denying that. That's just another part of the challenge that we have at Auburn.”

Harsin was hired to lead Auburn’s football program just under five months ago. In that time, he’s hired a full staff of on- and off-the-field coaches, gone through Signing Day, put his players through winter workouts and spring practice, and dealt with a number of outgoing and incoming players through the transfer portal.

It’s all in preparation for his first season at Auburn, which gets underway at home Sept. 4 against Akron. Harsin will experience his first Iron Bowl and face Saban for the first time Nov. 27 in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“To me, you come to a place like this, you come to a conference like this because you're competitive and you want to play the best teams,” said Harsin. “The very best team — they proved that again last year — was Alabama. So you've got that challenge ahead of you as well. And I don't think that's anything we don't understand.

“We've just got a lot of work to do to put ourselves in the position to compete and play at that level. We all want to be in that position. Now it's just you've got to be focused on that, and we've got to do it every day in order to actually make that happen.”

Harsin and Bruce Pearl were in Birmingham Tuesday night and Nashville Wednesday night as part of the AMBUSH tour. It continues May 18 in Pensacola, Fla., and May 24 in Auburn.