Breaking News

These are the 20 best travel destinations for summer 2024, according to Google Flight Searches 3 Google Maps updates to make summer travel easier SPACECENT is up the new war zone > United States Space Force > Article Display Tuberculosis — United States, 2023 | MMWR Thousands of US bridges are vulnerable to collapse from a single hit: NTSB Why don’t the Blazers or ROOT Sports offer standalone streaming? Up to 200,000 people estimated to travel to Vermont for total solar eclipse How fast will April’s total solar eclipse travel? The UN Security Council demands a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan Mexico in the emerging world order

ATLANTA – During the final SEC media days, the two coaches at the center of the biggest controversies of the offseason (Jimbo Fisher and Bryan Harsin) insisted that they have moved on. First, it was Harsin who addressed the elephant in the room: Power brokers at Auburn wanted to fire him after just one season and tried their best to drum up something about an official university request to do it. They failed while Harsin grabbed his heels, and he remains their coach. Harsin took a victory lap at SEC media days.

“I know some of you out there looking at me didn’t expect me to be here at this time,” Harsin said. “There was an investigation. It was uncomfortable. It was unfounded. It presented an opportunity for people to attack me, my family, and even our program personally. And it didn’t work.

“What it did is it united our football team, our players, our staff. I’m really proud of our guys. I’m proud of what can be a very challenging and difficult thing for a lot of people — how our guys stepped up and have handled it.

Then there was Fisher, whose impromptu press conference after Nick Saban accused Texas A&M of buying his recruiting class was passionately defended and featured several personal barbs about his former boss’ character. But Fisher did nothing to further the beef; just like at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Florida, he spent most of his time downplaying the fact that it happened at all.

“I have great respect for Nick and his program,” Fisher said Thursday.

Saban took the spat as a time to reflect on himself and become a better person and coach, and Fisher said he did the same.

“You’ve got two competitive guys who had a disagreement that we both publicly voiced for the first time that both of us did. We can both grow from that and hopefully we will. … I have a lot of respect for Nick and his program and everything he’s ever done. We’ve been very good friends for a long time. Isn’t that what you struggle with the most? Your brothers, who you’re closest to?”

While it was expected that Fisher would downplay what happened with a possible directive from the conference not to keep things going, this is still a far cry from the loaded statements he made about Saban in May did, among other things, urge reporters to dig into Saban’s past and call out “the narcissist” in him. Fisher told CBS that the hatchet is buried, and that her sparrow is natural for people from West Virginia.

There is one way these subplots go: by winning on the field, which is the easiest avenue to avoid any off-field distraction. Harsin faces a stiff test early in the season with Penn State traveling to Auburn in Week 3, plus his usually loaded SEC slate. For A&M, everything points to the Oct. 8 showdown against Alabama in Tuscaloosa. If the Aggies stumble, where the narratives go from there will be anyone’s guess.

Don’t hesitate that Auburn’s boosters will certainly be able to drag everyone through another saga of firing a coach (it would be the third such fiasco in 18 months if they do). For Fisher, his team needs to put its money where its mouth is — as if the Tide needed any more motivation after last year’s loss in College Station.

Fisher and Harsin insist on moving on, and they personally may have, but these will be boiling under the surface this fall – whether they like it or not.

• Tennessee’s Jeremy Pruitt Disaster Hits New Low • Ranking Power 5 Schools by Desirability • Will Anderson Jr. Is Ready for His Encore• Pitt’s Narduzzi Thinks Big Ten, SEC Are Overhyped

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *