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Auburn Football: Safeties Coach Charlie Harbison is Out, But Who Will Replace Him?

By Nicholas Ian Allen

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As first reported by Phillip Marshall of Auburn Undercover, Charlie Harbison, is no longer with the Auburn football program. The university confirmed the report Monday morning.

“I want to thank Charlie for his contributions to our program,” head coach Gus Malzahn said. “He was a true professional that was a positive example for our players.”

The move is not a surprise. We speculated weeks ago that Harbison, like cornerbacks coach Melvin Smith, would not be retained on new coordinator Will Muschamp’s defensive staff, especially with the addition of new secondary coach Travaris Robinson.

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And, as Marshall pointed out, Harbison understood his future with the Tigers was uncertain to say the least.

“I’ve been in this business for a while, and it’s part of it,” Harbison said before the Outback Bowl. “I just let my work speak for itself, and I just continue to go forward. In this business, things like that happen. We just keep moving on, just take the next step.”

It’s a harsh reality of the coaching profession: Pretty much everyone will be fired at some point.

Harbison coached safeties for the Tigers over the past two seasons, was co-defensive coordinator under head coach Gus Malzahn and defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, and served as the defensive play-caller during the Tigers’ 34-31 overtime loss to Wisconsin in Tampa.

A long-time coaching veteran, Harbison – like Johnson and Smith – won’t have trouble finding work again if he wants it. The three may even end up together again before all is said an done.

But, with Harbison gone, who will replace him on the Auburn football coaching staff?

First, it’s important to consider the structure of the staff, and how the defensive scheme plays into the makeup.

Under Ellis Johnson, Auburn had two coaches coaching defensive backs. Johnson served as his own linebackers coach and Rodney Garner coaching the defensive line.

With a 4-2-5 scheme, Johnson was responsible for two linebackers and there were five defensive backs (one of which was the Star hybrid safety/linebacker position).

Now, the Tigers will implement a multiple defense with a base 4-3 (four defensive linemen), but that will play plenty of odd fronts (three defensive linemen) as well. That means there will only be four defensive backs on the field in the base defense. With Muschamp running the defense, and Travaris Robinson hired to coach the complete secondary instead of either cornerbacks or safeties.

Jan 3, 2014; Irvine, CA, USA; Auburn Tigers co-defensive coordinator Charlie Harbison at practice for the 2014 BCS National Championship at UC Irvine. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Muschamp will probably be a “walk around” defensive coordinator instead of coaching a position himself. For most coordinators, this is the ideal setup because it frees them up to visit with each position group during practice instead of focusing their time and energy on a smaller group of players in individual periods.

That means Auburn is most likely in search of a linebackers coach.

The first name that comes to mind for many is former Florida defensive coordinator and interim head coach D.J. Durkin. However, Durkin is expected to end up on Jim Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan.

Harbaugh and Durkin worked together at Stanford, and earlier this week it was expected that Harbaugh would bring both Durkin and current Stanford defensive coordinator Lance Anderson to Ann Arbor. Monday morning, FootballScoop.com reported then confirmed, Anderson has instead chosen to stay in Palo Alto, which makes it even more likely Durkin ends up in Ann Arbor.

With the Wolverines, Durkin will either be the defensive coordinator, or a co-coordinator with Greg Mattison or another new coach. At Auburn, he would simply coach linebackers, which is a less prestigious and lower-paying job.

Plus, Durkin was expected to be in the mix for some pretty high-profile coordinator jobs as well (Texas A&M, for example, before the Aggies hired John Chavis), so even if he doesn’t go to Michigan for some reason, there may be a better job out there for him than what he would have with the Tigers.

Is it impossible for Durkin to end up at Auburn? No. It’s just a real long shot.

Another name to think about is current defensive graduate assistant Travis Williams, who coached the linebackers during the bowl game. Williams is a young coach with tremendous upside and energy, but he is similarly unlikely to be hired full time.

Williams had a unique opportunity to coach in front of Muschamp and basically audition for the job in the Outback Bowl practices, but with only one year as a full time assistant coach under his belt (at Northern Iowa in 2012), he probably doesn’t have the experience necessary at this point in his career.  This is the same reason why a former player with no coaching experience (such as Takeo Spikes, who has been mentioned a lot on message boards for some reason) isn’t the right fit for the role.

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    • Of course, it is worth noting, that the defensive coaching staff has gotten considerably younger with the departure of Johnson, Smith and Harbison, and every coach has to start somewhere. So, Williams has a shot – just not a very good one.

    Who does, then?

    It’s tough to give a specific name, though a few to watch are former UAB head coach Bill Clark, Florida defensive line coach Brad Lawing (who would either coach linebackers, or he and Garner would share D-Line responsibilities and Muschamp would coach linebackers).

    Or, the most likely option is “none of the above.” Clark may still have an opportunity to become a lower-level head coach or coordinator and Lawing only coached one season at Florida, so he’s probably not one of the guys Mushcamp has to have on staff like Robinson.

    With all the speculating about Muschamp and T-Rob over the past four weeks, it’s natural to do so for this hire. However, chances are, a name will surface through reports in the next 48 hours and it will be a name no one saw coming.

    It may be someone Muschamp worked with at LSU, Texas or Florida. It may be someone currently coaching in the SEC or elsewhere with no ties to Auburn, Malzahn or Muschamp. At this point, we simply don’t know.

    We just need to wait, be patient and see how it plays out.

    Next: Football: The 3 Most Important Recruits of 2015

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