Bryan Harsin has faced a series of issues in his first year at Auburn, and now that he’s entering Year 2, the Auburn coach is dealing with coaching departures and a host of players hitting the transfer portal.

Although rumors have escalated at the end of the week, John Talty of AL.com reported that he’s only comfortable saying this much: “There’s been a concerted effort to ramp up pressure and make it untenable for Bryan Harsin to return for Year 2. And Harsin has provided plenty of ammo from coaching departures to transfer portal exodus. Situation moving fast.”

Bo Nix’s transfer to Oregon was among the 18 Auburn players who hit the transfer portal since the Iron Bowl. While the transfer portal issue is one thing, the more troubling aspect in recent weeks has been the departures of 3 coordinators.

Now the second-year coach is trying to rebuild the foundation of the coaching staff with a pair of new coordinators for the second year in a row. And on offense, for the second time in 6 weeks after Austin Davis resigned for personal reasons and apparently has stepped away from coaching football despite taking the job after being the Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach.

It didn’t help that former Auburn defensive lineman Lee Hunter wrote on Instagram that players were treated “like dogs” and that was one reason why he transferred to UCF.