Inside The Huskies

Former Husky OC Eric Kiesau Promoted to Same Job at Auburn

The veteran coach spent the 2012 and 2013 seasons at Washington.
Dan Raley|
Former Husky OC Eric Kiesau Promoted to Same Job at Auburn
Former Husky OC Eric Kiesau Promoted to Same Job at Auburn

Eric Kiesau, a former University of Washington offensive coordinator, has been promoted to the same role at Auburn as embattled coach Bryan Harsin searches for program relief following a challenging first season at the SEC school.

Harsin, formerly the Boise State coach, was the subject of a university inquiry after his initial Tigers team lost its final five games to finish 6-7 and several coaches and players left the program. 

Auburn chose not to fire him and be responsible for another huge buyout, which is what it is doing with his predecessor, Gus Malzahn, now at Central Florida.

Kiesau, 49, amazingly becomes Harsin's third offensive coordinator in 14 months.

He replaces Austin Davis, who held the job for just six weeks before leaving for personal reasons. Davis took over for Mike Bobo, who was fired by Auburn following the end of the regular season.

Kiesau spent the 2012 and 2013 seasons with the Huskies as part of Steve Sarkisian's staff. 

When Sarkisian left for USC, Kiesau wasn't invited to join him and ended up at Kansas for a season as a wide-receivers coach. 

After another year at Alabama as a quality assistant for Nick Saban, Kiesau interestingly ended up at Fresno State as the offensive coordinator for Tim DeRuyter's staff and finished the season as interim head coach. 

DeRuyter was fired during a dismal 1-11 season for the Bulldogs in 2016, leading to the hiring of Jeff Tedford as coach and Kalen DeBoer as offensive coordinator. 

DeBoer is now at Washington as head coach after leaving the same role at Fresno State, Tedford is back at Fresno State as coach after a two-year absence and Kiesau is at Auburn after a stop at Boise State as offensive coordinator for Harsin.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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