Competition is a necessity for Bryan Harsin at Auburn.

Whether it’s at quarterback, where TJ Finley entered on Monday to compete against Bo Nix, or for the backup safety spot, Harsin wants to see competition.

“Competition keeps you focused. Competition gets you up and out of bed in the morning and drives you towards improvement,” Harsin said. “And so there's nothing wrong with that. And I think that's something I hope our players understand. Like, that's not a bad thing. And every position on our team, I hope that we can provide competition. And I hope that every guy wants to play, and I hope every guy, they're great teammates with each other.

“They treat each other and respect each other like they should. We build chemistry. But at the same time, you're here to play. You're here to go out there and be on the field.”

For Nix, competition is nothing new. When Nix arrived as a freshman, he had to compete with Malik Willis and Joey Gatewood before ultimately winning the job. In 2020 there wasn’t much competition behind Nix, but now, the former LSU quarterback will come in and compete for the starting spot.

At the quarterback position, Harsin is looking for some specifics as they compete.

“The quarterback room is about toughness. It's about preparation. It's about decision-making. It's about accuracy,” Harsin said. “But these guys, you want to have the ultimate competitors in that room. And really, it starts with themselves. That's the one thing about that position is that one guy that's on the field — usually, right? That's playing that position. So you got to be — you got to start with yourself. You got to compete with yourself every day. You got to push yourself every day. You got to develop yourself every day.”

After 15 practices over the course of the spring, Auburn will have “captains practices” in the summer with coaches not present. Then once the fall starts up, competition will start up again as Auburn has 25 practices before the season starts.

"To me, that's something that good teams have. They have competition,” Harsin said. “They have rooms where guys are pushing each other in that room… If you listen to a really good player you’ll hear about how his teammates pushed him and how that motivation helps him improve. You want to hear that from your players. It’s no different in the quarterback room, in the d-line room or the wide receiver room. We need competition. I think we’re hopefully establishing that but we’ll see.”

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