After Auburn’s 17-13 loss to Houston yesterday in the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl, a friend of mine called Bryan Harsin, “a lightweight.” I agree and I’ll go a little further and call him a featherweight. Auburn Athletics Director Allen Greene wanted to go outside the the box with his football hire after firing Gus Malzahn and he certainly did that and brought in a guy who is clearly in over his head.

The Auburn defense under Derek Mason played well, and deserved to win, but the inept play-calling by Harsin and the inept play of quarterback TJ Finley, were too much for the Tigers to overcome.

Auburn’s going to have to find a quarterback if they want to have a decent season next year. There is 4 star Dematrius Davis, who was redshirted this year as a freshman, and incoming 4 star freshman Holden Geriner, so maybe one of those 2 can step up. The new offensive coordinator from the Seattle Seahawks, 32 year old Austin Davis, has his hands full.

If you look at his record at Boise State, Harsin was pretty average. He had some good seasons and some mediocre seasons, similar to what Malzahn did at Auburn. Chris Peterson put Boise State on the map and made them a stellar program that Harsin inherited and did OK with. He looks out of his league at Auburn, but he may be OK with some of the rest of these programs in the SEC struggling. The SEC is 0-4 in bowls so far. I hope that’ll improve. Mike Leach did a terrible job getting his Mississippi State team ready to play Texas Tech in the Liberty Bowl and, as a result, his team lost 34-7. That’s a joke. Leach looks in over his head as well. On the other side of that, 40 year old Sonny Cumbie, the interim Red Raiders Coach who is now head coach at LA Tech, did an awesome job getting his team ready to play. They were spectacular, and dominated State the entire game. He should get a lot of credit for that and LA Tech fans should be excited.

Eli Drinkwitz had his backup quarterback playing against Army and the Cadets proved to be too mentally strong for Drinkwitz and his team. Drinkwitz hasn’t done much of anything, but can it even be done at Missouri? He’s got a top 15 class in 2022, so maybe they’ll get better.

In defense of Harsin and Auburn, the Michael Mothershed PAC-12 crew had two blatant missed calls on Houston’s game winning drive. The last 2 plays of the drive. On the first play, Houston quarterback Clayton Tune clearly committed intentional grounding. With the Auburn pass rush coming after him, he threw it way out of bounds and he was in the pocket. So that should have been penalty at the spot of the foul and loss of down. That would have been third down. Then on the game winning play, the Houston offensive lineman was clearly holding Auburn’s defensive tackle as he was rushing Tune. So, really bad officiating by the Mothershed crew that cost the Tigers the game. And, in Finley’s defense, there were a couple of key drops on Auburn’s final drive. The Auburn receiver dropped a first down pass on fourth down and that was it. So, not all Finley’s fault.

Harsin has the 13th ranked class in 2022, so far, so I’ll give him somewhat of a mulligan, but that was pathetic yesterday. He needs to improve markedly next season or he could be another Auburn coach who’s shown the door. It’s a tough deal at Auburn. They just can’t seem to get the coaching hire right. Maybe Harsin will surprise next season. Hope so for Auburn fans’ sake.

Here are today’s and tomorrow’s predictions.

Today

Cheez-It Bowl

Iowa State (7-5) vs. No. 19 Clemson (9-3)

Camping World Stadium, Orlando, 60.219

4:45 PM CT

ESPN

Dave Pasch, Dusty Dvoracek, Lugues

Yella, PAC-12, Chris Coyte

Clemson by 1 1/2

Clemson ended up winning 9 games and could get double digit victories in what was a struggling year for them. They lost DC Brent Venables to Oklahoma (head coach) and OC Tony Elliott to UVA (head coach), and, in the case of Elliott, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing for Dabo and company. Give me the Tigers here.

Clemson 24, Iowa State 20

Valero Alamo Bowl

No. 14 Oregon (10-3) vs. No.16 Oklahoma (10-2)

Alamodome, San Antone, 64,000

8:15 PM CT

ESPN

Jason Benetti, Andre, Carc

Laundry, ACC, Mike Roche

OU by 7

Bob Stoops is taking the place of the traitor, Lincoln Riley, in this game, so he’ll try to motivate the Sooners while Bryan McClendon does the same for the Ducks with Mario Cristobal defecting to Miami. I don’t like the players bailing on bowl games, can’t stand it, but what about these coaches bailing on their teams. It’s a dysfunctional system right now. Give me Stoops and OU.

Oklahoma 31, Oregon 23

Thursday

Duke’s Mayo Bowl

North Carolina (6-6) vs. South Carolina (6-6)

Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C., 75,523

10:30 AM CT

ESPN

Anish Shroff, Mike Golic Jr. Taylor McGregor

Refs, Big Ten, Reggie Smith

UNC by 9 1/2

I might regret this, but I’ll take Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks in an upset.

South Carolina 31, North Carolina 30

TransPerfect Music City Bowl

Tennessee (7-5) vs. Purdue (8-4)

Nissan Stadium, Nashvegas, 69,143

2 PM CT

ESPN

Tom, JRodg, Cole

Whistles, ACC, Jerry Magallanes

UT by 6

Give me quarterback Hendon Hooker and the Vols to build off a solid season and get ready for a promising 2022.

Tennessee 31, Purdue 24

New Year’s Six Bowl, First One

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl

No. 10 Michigan State (10-2) vs No. 12 Pittsburgh (11-2)

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, ATL., 71,000

6 PM CT

ESPN

Mark Jones, RGIII, Quint

Stripes, SEC, Steve Marlowe

Spartans by 2 1/2

This is a great matchup despite Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett and Michigan State running back Kenneth Walker III both sitting it out for the draft. I don’t think Mel Tucker is a good coach, I think he’s a great coach. I’ll take Sparty in a lower scoring game. Quarterback Payton Thorne and the Spartan offense do enough and the defense plays well. So does Pitt. I like this very close.

Michigan State 23, Pitt 20

Friday’s Lineup

Playoff Games

No.1 Alabama (12-1) vs. No.4 Cincinnati (13-0), 2;30 PM CT, ESPN

No.2 Michigan (12-1) vs. No.3 Georgia (12-1), 6:30 PM CT, ESPN

A lot to talk about then.