Bryan Harsin's First Recruiting Class Cut In Half After He Reportedly Gave Players An Ultimatum About Redshirting

Bryan Harsin's time at Auburn has been chaotic, to say the least. It seems as though it is only a matter of time before the 45-year-old is relieved of his duties and paid a lot of money not to coach the Tigers.

In the meantime, the program continues to see players get ahead of what seems to be the early stages of a mass exodus at the end of the season. Although many players, especially in the current era, transfer out of their programs after a coach has been fired, quite a few at Auburn are already heading out.

On Wednesday afternoon, Harsin confirmed that cornerback A.D. Diamond is no longer with the team. His name was removed from the official roster earlier this week.

Diamond, a former three-star recruit from Mobile, Alabama, signed with the Tigers as part of the Class of 2021, Harsin's first with Auburn. It was just another blow to a program that is already reeling with what appears to be a lame duck head coach at the helm.

Bryan Harsin continues to see players transfer out of Auburn.

By leaving the program, Diamond became the ninth player in his class to do so. Harsin and his staff signed just 18 players in that recruiting cycle, so Auburn has officially lost half of its players from the Class of 2021.

In addition, Diamond was the third player to publicly reveal that they have left the team this week. Former top-100 recruit Zykevious Walker, part of the Class of 2020, announced his intentions to transfer on Monday.

Tight end Landen King, part of Diamond's class, previously said that he would be sitting out the rest of the year to redshirt. He, too, announced his intent to transfer. As have defensive tackle Lee Hunter, safety Ahmari Harvey, quarterback Dematrius Davis, wide receiver Hal Presley, defensive lineman Ian Mathews, and JUCO cornerbacks Kamal Hadden and Ro Torrence.

The players leaving are not just half of Harsin's first recruiting class at Auburn. They also include five of the Top-10 players in that class— and it gets worse.

By announcing Diamond's departure, Harsin has now lost 31 scholarship players to the transfer portal since he took over the program. That is just shy of 1.5 players per month that he has been head coach.

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Although the exact reason for the players leaving is unclear, it might stem from Harsin's approach to redshirts. According to reports and rumors from around The Plains, he has told his players that they cannot redshirt unless it is for medical reasons, and if they want to redshirt, then they can enter the transfer portal.

Harsin addressed the reports on Wednesday:

Regardless of the reason, Auburn players are leaving. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues.