Auburn football HC Bryan Harsin explains difference in recruiting at Boise State

Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin has now been initiated to what recruiting in the SEC is really like.

It’s a snake pit. One that almost choked the life out of the Boise native’s tenure on the Plains after just one (admittedly disappointing) season.

Harsin was submarined by the Auburn Board of Trustees and smeared in a way that makes it unfathomable that he’s been this good of a sport about all of it.

The Tigers head coach somehow saw positives from the snafu:

"“I thought there were some productive conversations that we had,” he said. “… You don’t just go through things and not take something out of it. You don’t just go through things and it’s just business as usual.”"

One of the lessons he learned about the experience is how much different leading a Power Five program that essentially annually plays the eventual national champion is from leading a Group of Five school that stands out in its own conference but doesn’t receive the level of scrutiny an SEC school does.

Negative recruiting is big for Auburn football, and it’s not something he ever saw to this degree as the Boise State head coach:

"Harsin conceded that other schools will try to recruit against Auburn, using the inquiry to their advantage. But he added that negative recruiting is nothing new and if it wasn’t this it would be something else.“We battle it and we’re going to battle it every day,” he said.Asked if he battled it to this extent at his previous job, Boise State, Harsin conceded, “No, not like this.”"

Auburn football is an SEC pillar, and thus, a massive target of negative recruiting

The Plains is a major pull for any recruit, so obviously, using the program’s history of meddling donors is the best way to overcome the aspiring nature of the SEC’s greatest college town.

Harsin could counterbalance the AU BoT’s inquiry by winning in spite of them and proving to recruits that hard work overcomes hard times.