AL.com: Bryan Harsin hasn’t developed QBs any better than Gus Malzahn

With Auburn continuing to pile up losses against Power Five losses under Bryan Harsin’s watch as head coach, the natural comparison to former Tigers HC and current UCF play-caller Gus Malzahn has arisen plenty.

Malzahn’s first season resulted in an SEC Championship and an appearance in the final BCS Championship, while Harsin’s finished with a five-game skid and a losing record after a Birmingham Bowl loss to a Group of Five squad.

It’s hard not to reminisce about when times were better than they are at this current moment on the Plains.

AL.com’s John Talty, in a piece titled ‘Auburn should get Lane Kiffin because Bryan Harsin isn’t the guy,’ not only made the case that Ole Miss’ current head coach should make the jump to Auburn, but that Malzahn was better suited for the job Harsin was brought in to do better than him:

"“Harsin hasn’t developed quarterbacks any better than Malzahn, he can’t recruit well enough to compete with the SEC’s upper echelon and he’s not an elite X’s and O’s coach to overcome those deficiencies. That’s a recipe to get you fired long before your initial six-year contract runs out, as Harsin is well on his way to experiencing.”"

The best quarterback Bryan Harsin developed is now in Oregon

Unfortunately, there is one quarterback who was developed well under Bryan Harsin but he is now playing for Oregon and scoring five touchdowns under his old offensive coordinator from the Gus Malzahn days, Kenny Dillingham.

It’s Fly War Eagle, so you know we’re talking Bo Nix, but it’s a legitimate fact that Nix was a better quarterback against LSU, Arkansas, and Ole Miss than he was during his second season under Malzahn in 2020.

T.J. Finley failing to take any sort of leap forward from his LSU days is Harsin’s greatest underachievement, but Nix is Exhibit A when it comes to the Boise native developing those at the same position he played during his playing career at Boise State.