STULTZ: Harsin playing victim? Color me surprised

I was done writing about Bryan Harsin. I really was. He left Auburn six months ago after a 21-month tenure that was so extraordinarily pathetic that it is almost laughable.

There was nothing else to say about him. So it was finished, much to the joy of everyone that covered him, played or coached with him. And for Auburn fans, it was a relief to get rid of a coach that never seemed to grasp what the job consisted of to win in the SEC.

I was done. And then the man from Boise basically considered himself a victim. Victim? Please. He's living the good life right now after getting a buyout that 99 percent of us can only dream about, while Auburn is trying to pick up the pieces from his negligence and outright refusal to try to win over a fan base that supports the Tigers with passion and vigor.

"There were things we didn't like,” Harsin told ESPN's Chris Low. "There were things that were disappointing, on and off the field. There were things that I wish I would have done better, and there were things where we got a chance to see some of the worst in people."

The worst in people? Yes, we certainly saw that in Harsin himself. Nothing was ever his fault. The media, as he famously told us, "wasn't in the meetings," and anything going on that resulted in a bad look for the team was passed on to someone else.

But let's go back to what he could have done better during his short stint.

He could have given at least an ounce of energy to recruiting, the lifeline of a program. The lack of relationships he tried to build with high school coaches in the state of Alabama was appalling, with some from the top programs saying they had never met or heard from Harsin. He skipped out on a planned dinner involving recruits at a local club. The infamous Junior Day in 2022 was such a disaster that it is now a running joke. Hugh Freeze did more good for the relations with high school coaches in his first week than Harsin did in his entire time on the Plains.

The turmoil inside the locker room was apparent to even the casual follower. The look of dejection, even after victories, could be seen on the faces of the players. There was a dark cloud over the program; assistant coaches were on the edge of their seats, wondering if they would be the next to get the axe.

Harsin even went as far as blaming COVID for his troubles in getting to know the power boosters and in recruiting. That's just a weak excuse for someone who seemingly didn't want to get to know them because no other coach hired during the same cycle seemed to have that problem.

"But when you really get tested as we were at Auburn, and it's the same challenge for your players, your true colors are going to show in how you handle it," Harsin said in the interview with ESPN.

True colors is a funny phrase here because we see Harsin's in this piece. He still takes little blame for what went wrong, deflecting it onto everyone else but himself. The coach who let Auburn get to a place so low doesn't seem to realize that most of the program hitting rock bottom is squarely on his broad shoulders. Instead of taking the money and being happy, he decided to crap on the same school, which he said, "It means a lot to be Auburn's head football coach and a part of this program."

Of course, it was understandable for him to be angry after the 2022 investigation that almost got him fired after one season. But instead of coming back strong and fighting, he almost seemed to give up. The small effort he gave at the beginning trying to win over the fan base was gone. The final blow was an embarrassing blowout loss to Arkansas in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

We all knew this redemption piece would come out eventually. And for those blaming Chris Low, don't. He did what any journalist would do, especially one that covers SEC football. But everyone was aware Harsin would hit back someday and let his feelings be known. That's his right. I hope he feels good about himself.

But don't believe what you read or hear from the coach. That's his side of the story. Many others will tell you quite the opposite.

At the end of ESPN's piece, Harsin tries to advise on how to win in the SEC, something he obviously knows nothing about. He says you must have alignment from everyone involved, including the university president and board of trustees. And then he hits it with this quip.

"But we don't want to make that our problem any longer," Harsin said. "That's Auburn's problem. We've moved on and being home has never felt better."

Here's the thing, Bryan: Auburn has never felt better without you.