Jordan Peterson (left), Bryan Harsin (center) and Dabo Swinney (right). Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media

Bryan Harsin has some free time on his hands now that he’s no longer tasked with running a collegiate football program.

The former Auburn Tigers head coach recently denounced an article that was critical of his tenure. And now he’s coming to the defense of one of his former colleagues, and is again taking aim at the media.

But this time around, Harsin invoked a Jordan Peterson quote to come to the defense of Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney. That’s something that you’d have a hard time coming up with in MadLibs, let alone something that actually happened. But it did. And it all started because of the video below:

Brayden Jacobs has been committed to Clemson since late January. The son of former New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs took in his official visit to his future school over the weekend and did some sort of vlog at his soon-to-be head coach’s home.

Swinney didn’t say Brayden’s name, letting the four-star offensive tackle do so himself. That led to others wondering if Swinney even knew the name of one of his committed recruits.

Brandon pushed back at that narrative.

“He did know his name,” the elder Jacobs wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “He didn’t wanna steal his moment!! Coach have been here they have talked on the phone and FaceTime multiple times. Trust me we was tough in this process and would not have him commit to a coach that don’t know his name. I get what y’all see but that not it.”

But that didn’t stop it from becoming a thing. And On3’s J.D. PicKell delivered his own thoughts on the matter:

“I struggle with names. Like, I will meet people like 2 or 3 times before I get their name down,” he explained. “But by the fourth time, I will know your name. And if you’re committed to playing football for my school, and you’re one of two offensive linemen, and you’re here to visit the school officially — not at a camp, not like some unofficial visit weekend, it wasn’t some surprise weekend when there’s like 300 people. No, no, no, this is an official visit weekend. He’s been committed for four months, visited four times, and we don’t know his name.

“And our whole pitch is to be relational and not transactional. This, to me, is a little bit concerning. Again, I’m not saying that Clemson’s gonna be bad because of this video. I’m not saying Dabo Swinney’s not gonna work out at Clemson long-term. But I am saying, it’s just interesting — very, very interesting.

“If you differentiate from the other places, ‘We’re not doing the portal. We’re doing the relational thing.’ But you don’t know my man’s name? And he’s been committed for four months? You only have 11 commits? That’s where I start to have a little bit of an issue here.

And you see, this is where Harsin begins to take issue with the narrative forming. He called out PicKell, asking the On3 CFB analyst if he had any proof of what he was claiming happened. Not to mention that the recruit’s father, who is a former football player himself, said it didn’t happen.

The irony is thick.

The best part about this whole ordeal is Harsin quoting the controversial Jordan Peterson. Yes, the same famous Canadian psychologist and author who was forced to undergo “social media training” for controversial posts he has shared in the last few years.

Peterson can’t help himself, can he?

Thursday was another day of him spouting extreme right-wing talking points. From abortion to “wokeness” to transgender issues, he throws gasoline on the culture war fire.

And in going full Facebook warrior, Harsin posted like he’s on a mission to defeat “cancel culture” with this motivational quote single-handedly.

Sure, there might be some truth to Harsin’s post. But it feels more like he’s got a personal vendetta against the media. That is especially true considering that he dug up a two-year-old tweet from a columnist about a COVID-19 vaccine (Harsin made news in 2021 while at Auburn for refusing to disclose his vaccination status), which screams louder about wanting to deflect blame for his program’s struggles.

Maybe the real erosion of confidence in the media came from all those glowing predictions about Harsin being Auburn’s savior. Perhaps he never got a fair shake. But hey, at least he never subjected his team to mandatory Peterson quotes in meetings.

That we know of.

[Bryan Harsin]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.