Going into their game against Penn State, a lot of people thought this may be the coming out party for Bryan Harsin’s Auburn Tigers. That thought ended quickly when the Nittany Lions started strong and didn’t let up on the Tigers, eventually winning 41-12.
It was Auburn’s worst non-conference home loss since 1982 when they lost 41-7 to Nebraska.
The talk of the whole game was the quarterback play of T.J. Finley and backup Robbie Ashford, neither of whom could get the ball in the endzone. Finley only threw for 152 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Ashford also threw an interception in the red zone when Finley was injured.
There was even talk at one point in the game of third-string quarterback Zach Calzada, the transfer from Texas A&M, coming in. In total, the Tigers turned the ball over four times.
The Auburn defense wasn’t much better, giving up 245 yards on the ground to the Nittany Lions.
While the play on the field was disappointing, there was also talk about what a terrible coaching job Harsin appeared to be doing and how unprepared the Tigers looked Saturday afternoon. Harsin’s job is clearly on the line this season and this lackluster performance did not help him at all.
This game left college football fans wondering if Penn State is that good or if Auburn is that bad. Everyone, especially Auburn fans, wants to know.
remember when Auburn went through basically every step to fire Harsin
and then just didn't
— Ryan Nanni (@celebrityhottub) September 17, 2022
https://twitter.com/MichaelScAUrn_/status/1571255466029715457
https://twitter.com/Nogoodthing/status/1571275844793810952
There doesn’t seem to be much optimism from Auburn fans about the future with their head coach or their football team. And it only gets harder from here with Missouri and LSU up next.
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About Stacey Mickles
Stacey is a 1995 graduate of the University of Alabama who has previously worked for other publications such as Sportskeeda and Saturday Down South.