AUBURN, Alabama – Some names Bryan Harsin recognizes, some don’t.
Since the 44-year-old was named Auburn’s new head coach on Tuesday, his phone rang in his pocket every few minutes. He made many contacts throughout his rise as a Boise State quarterback in the late 1990s to a SEC coach now, and many within his network have reached him. Others found their number and had to shoot.
The biggest job vacancy in college football this season (so far) has been filled, and other coaches across the country have been contacting Harsin in the past 48 hours about possible vacancies on his Auburn assistant team.
For Harsin, this is an encouraging sign of what sports coaches think of Auburn’s program.
“Let me say this: there is no lack of interest from coaches who want to be part of this Auburn program,” said Harsin on Christmas Eve during his introductory press conference. “My phone is exploding.”
Not long ago, Harsin was a promising assistant at Boise State, his alma mater. As an offensive coordinator and defender coach for Chris Petersen, the Broncos were 61-5 (2006-10) and produced some of the most efficient and electric attacks in college football.
He is aware of the importance of a quality team, with Auburn now his third head coaching job after Arkansas State (2013) and Boise State (2014-20). Harsin believes that his hiring will open the door for talented coaches to make names through high-level SEC production.
He compared his assistant team’s decisions to a lesson he learned from his father, who is a drag runner.
“When you drive more than 200 miles an hour in a car in six seconds, this thing works better, right?” Harsin joked. “… We work with cars, we build cars, it takes time and people are extremely impatient. – Do you want it well done or now? That was one of his favorite lines there. … ‘I can make it work, it won’t go as you want.’
“So it is extremely important that we have the right people here. It is extremely important that we have the right coaches here. It is extremely important that we have coaches here who understand, as I feel now, what Auburn really stands for. “
And there’s no time to waste – well, holidays don’t count. Harsin said he is starting to organize an assistant coach’s wish list “now”, although he told the coaches that they blew up his phone to take a few days off, enjoy Christmas and come back to him this weekend.
Harsin made a point of reiterating that it will be deliberate about filling in his team, although he is also patient. And he will not be harmed on who he wants to hire. Auburn University President Jay Gogue said on Wednesday that Harsin will have full control over his team’s choices, and that no “stipulation” about assistant coaches existed for any candidate during the Auburn coach search.
As for the current team, Harsin met them through a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, although he has known some coaching events and connections over the years. Harsin gave them the same message he gave potential candidate candidates: Take time off, enjoy Christmas and things will start on Saturday when players return to campus for bowling.
Speaking of Auburn’s encounter at the Citrus Bowl with No. 14 Northwestern (noon CST on New Year’s Day, ABC), Harsin let Auburn’s current technical assistants know that this team has his undivided attention. He said goodbye in Boise and is ready to help the Tigers win a game of bowling.
“It was simple. What I told them is, what can I do to help you? What can I do to support you? “Harsin said. “What can I do to make sure you have everything you need to prepare these guys to play against Northwestern?”
Auburn distributed $ 6.76 million to his group of assistant coaches in 2020, good for the fourth largest brand at the SEC and the sixth most in college football, according to the USA TODAY annual publication. technical assistant’s salary database.
*** Subscribe: Get the latest information and information from Auburn ***
*** Subscribe to the Auburn Undercover newsletter and receive FREE breaking news from Auburn in your inbox for FREE. Entering your email address takes just seconds ***