COMMENTARY: It's time for the Bryan Harsin experiment to end
Auburn needs to fire head football coach Bryan Harsin.
I know that's dramatic, and somewhat unprecedented for Auburn to fire a head coach in midseason, but hear me out.
Auburn finished last season, Bryan Harsin's first year as head coach, at 6-7. Starting 6-2, the Tigers collapsed down the stretch, closing on a five-game losing streak that included a blown 28-3 lead to Mississippi State at home and a 17-13 loss to Houston in the Birmingham Bowl. Auburn lost starting QB Bo Nix to a broken ankle in the Mississippi State loss; Harsin's handpicked backup - LSU transfer TJ Finley - was unable to get the job done, with Auburn scoring 17 (South Carolina), 22 (Alabama), and 13 (Houston) in his three starts, all losses.
After twenty players entered the portal following the conclusion of the season, Harsin brought in eight transfers, including two quarterbacks, to replace them. Transfer QB Zach Calzada from Texas A&M has not taken the field yet this year, while Oregon transfer Robby Ashford has split time with Finley, going 15-of-29 passing for 245 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions while adding 24 carries for 158 yards.
Harsin's 2022 recruiting class was 17 prep players, ranking 21st in the country. More importantly, it was 9th in the SEC, behind recruiting powerhouse Missouri and behind Florida, who hired head coach Billy Napier two weeks before December's Early Signing Day.
Auburn's underperformed on the field in 2022, going 2-1 after narrowly beating San Jose State 24-16 and then getting blown out at home by Penn State, 41-12. The offense has looked lifeless, averaging 26 points per game with more interceptions thrown on offense (6) than sacks on defense (4) and zero takeaways on the season.
And then there's recruiting. Let's talk about recruiting.
Auburn's class, as it stands, is 54th in the country, coming in at 13th out of 14 teams in the SEC. Reports have been leaking for over a year that Bryan Harsin is disengaged and doesn't put emphasis on recruiting, something confirmed most recently in an article from Aaron Suttles of The Athletic. A sampling of quotes from Alabama high school coaches, granted anonymity by Suttles in return for their candor, put the lack of effort in clear terms:
Coach 2 (Mobile area): "Bryan Harsin hasn’t been to our school. He’s never been here. That’s been a surprise. [...] I don’t know the head coach there."
Coach 1 (Birmingham area): "Honestly, they do a poor job in recruiting. I’ve never met the man (Harsin) in person. I do want to meet the guy because I think a lot of my kids could play at Auburn. But just as a rule, they just haven’t done a very good job recruiting our kids."
Coach 4 (West Alabama): "I took a player down there that had some good offers, and I don’t think they realized who he was."
The most glaring, egregious example of Bryan Harsin not caring about recruiting was summed up by Coach 1, when asked about the difference between Auburn and Alabama's recruiting:
(All quotes courtesy of The Athletic)
The NCAA allows 7-8 coaches to go out and recruit on Fridays - it's common for head coaches on the road to visit prospects near the site of their Saturday matchup. Penn State head coach James Franklin took a helicopter from their Montgomery hotel to visit Selma's DeKaari Nelson, a four-star commit at safety, prior to Saturday's blowout victory against Auburn.
Bryan Harsin reportedly allows only four coaches to go out on Friday nights, for unknown reasons.
Harsin's father, Dale, reportedly called into Paul Finebaum back in February to complain about the perception that Harsin didn't recruit well.
“First time caller on the show,” Dale from Boise started. “Anyway, on the recruiting portion of it, it said he didn’t recruit very well. Well, I think he did a pretty good job recruiting some of these players. They don’t have to be star-struck with five-star ratings. They can be good players. (He) went after good players that want to play the game and not star-struck with their stars and stuff. I thought he did a pretty dang good job: Kellen Moore, Leighton Vander Esch, Jay Ajai.”
When Finebaum pointed out - correctly - that the question wasn't whether Harsin could recruit at Boise but could he recruit in the SEC, Dale argued that you didn't need to recruit five-star players to win in the SEC.
“They want him to go after the five-star players, and you don’t always have to. Go after the players that want to play the game and want to be part of a team, not be star-struck with all their stars. I hear guys griping about having to work too hard. He didn’t make them work too hard.”
Despite the Blue-Chip Ratio absolutely being a thing, Auburn only has 7 four-star recruits and no five-star recruits in the 2023 class, having missed on 10 of the top 15 players in-state and having lost another one of those (4-star WR Karmello English) to a decommitment last weekend. We're legitimately in danger of falling out of the blue-chip ratio with one more substandard class.
graphic courtesy 247sports.com
At a certain point, to paraphrase from NFL head coach Dennis Green, "they are who we thought they were."
Bryan Harsin hasn't shown he wants to do the work required to recruit elite talent.
Bryan Harsin hasn't shown a proof of concept for what he wants this offense to be.
Bryan Harsin hasn't shown that his handpicked set of coordinators, Eric Kiseau on offense and Jeff Schmedding on defense (already the 2nd set of coordinators in two seasons), have what it takes to succeed in the SEC.
I know the buyout is $15 million dollars if you fire him at the end of the season, and likely a bit higher right now. And yes, we've already paid a LOT in buyout money for fired coaches - $38.1M since 2000, covering four coaching changes.
But ask yourself this: If you keep him, knowing that he's not recruiting well enough to keep pace with our peers, how long will it take to rebuild the program?
The Auburn Creed states "I believe in work, hard work."
Apparently, when it comes to recruiting, Bryan Harsin doesn't.
And Auburn deserves better.
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