Supreme Gump

They seem to be firing people in stages to avoid the impression of a complete purge. It seemed funny Antonio Pierce would keep his job too, but then he didn't.

Finebaum has had an outsized interest in Harbaugh from day 1, but it's part of the character he's paid to play to amuse the SEC! SEC! crowd. Also he's not wrong about any of this, so...

We'll probably get some solid "Missouri assistant leaves for better job managing Home Depot garden section" articles this off season.

Phil, this article is straight up fire compared to the "graduate assistant leaving to become FCS position coach" article I just read.

Good coaches already knew to avoid auburn, which is how they ended up with a Mountain West coach to begin with. Harsin's replacement will probably come from FCS.

"negotiating buyouts" is one of my favorite fan concepts. There's a legally binding contract saying he's owed $15, but somehow he'll agree to take less because reasons.

I think you're splitting hairs over the specific flavor of JABA involved. It never mattered how this story ended, the fact it was a story at all was the issue.

I'm winning.

Man. There are good lawyers, there are great lawyers, and then there's the type of guy who can get you off with probation for 157 pounds of weed.

I predict he learns he's fired in the middle of the meeting when another coach shows him the announcement on twitter.

Right? I assumed this was an old article that had bubbled up accidentally. How was he even in a position to make the same mistake twice?

Out of curiosity, what exactly makes Lincoln Riley “scum”? Taking a better job? Moving to a city you don’t like?

Clay Helton has auburn connections you know. Feels like a perfect fit to me.

Huh. As best as I can tell pre-NIL auburn and post-NIL auburn look identical, not sure why we're playing that card.

So Saban was able to pull Louisiana recruits from Miles and Orgeron, but not a mega-charismatic recruiting ace like Bryan Kelly?

It's amazing how many people still don't understand what NIL is and isn't.

You know, I always figured Arch was going to Ole Miss for the family connection, but on further reflection I'm sure he wants to go to the same school Matt Stafford played for when he was three years old. I think my bias had blinded me to this.

The best possible situation is if the school couldn't prove it or failed lost in court on firing with cause, and he got paid $18M to hit that.

Everyone knows you'd have more nattys if you weren't on probation when you went undefeated you mean?

Mason has already learned what auburn is, he wouldn't tank his reputation no matter what they paid him.

He probably turned them down before they went with Harsin. If not, he would this time. He'll do much better than auburn.

Of course, the allegedly soft culture won more football games and legacys weren't transferring, so I'm just going to stick with the easy answer of the guy isn't a good coach.

I for one am just as amazed as Smoke that Bryan Harsin has never spoken to Fire or Ash Monday.

Yes. This buyout thing. Nobody wants it to work out more than he does.

Good trolls never have to apologize.

Bryan Harsin is one of the best things to ever happen to Alabama fas and we would never do anything to jeopardize the situation!

I love how Player 1 is like "We love him he's great don't believe the rumors" while Player 2 is "Nah for real he sucks". The locker room must be a fantastic atmosphere.

Yeah, it's just a really weird scene there. I think musicians are allowed to be eccentric, maybe tech billionaires, but I'm not sure about eccentric football coaches.

But Barpig, auburn *did* hire a no name coach. How much no-namer can you get? An FCS coach?

I don't know about that, as recruits have acknowledged he told them he would pursue an NFL job. He seemed to be very open about it, and seems to have publicly requested the Raiders job via the media. So no, he definitely hasn't been saying he wouldn't leave, he had been publicly saying he would probably leave. Then didn't get any offers and came crawling back while spinning that he loved Michigan too much to ever leave.