SDS: Bryan Harsin’s Auburn football undoing was coordinator hires
It’s only natural for Hugh Freeze’s Auburn football recruiting success to be juxtaposed with Bryan Harsin’s inability to get such victories. Not only has Freeze been able to land several blue-chip offensive linemen from the 2023 cycle and could be closing in on one of the best quarterbacks in the transfer portal, but he has made popular coordinator hires as well.
Freeze added former Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery and Baylor defensive coordinator Ron Roberts to be his OC/DC respectively this past Sunday. Harsin made less popular hires with Derek Mason, who had one three games as Vanderbilt head coach the two seasons before joining AU as the DC, and Mike Bobo, who had gone 0-3 as South Carolina’s interim head coach in 2020 and oversaw a bottom-30 offense that entire season. When Mason left and Bobo was fired, Harsin promoted his OC from Boise State, Eric Kiesau, and his Broncos DC, Jeff Schmedding, to the same positions on the Plains.
Saturday Down South’s Connor O’Gara is high on Freeze’s regime so far, and compared his hiring of accomplished coordinators to Harsin’s less impressive haul — concluding that it was a lack of strong coordinator hires that ultimately sealed the fate of Bryan Harsin’s Auburn football tenure:
"“So far, so good for Freeze. I’d argue he already out-performed his predecessor at the whole “assembling a whale of a staff” thing. Well, at least with his coordinators. After all, Bryan Harsin was smart enough to keep Cadillac on staff.”“But in many ways, Harsin’s undoing was how those staff moves were handled. It probably wasn’t the best sign that he was on his 3rd OC just 14 months into the job, and the well-documented Derek Mason departure for a pay cut wasn’t necessarily a box Harsin hoped to check.”"
Bryan Harsin’s family no longer Auburn football fans
Bryan Harsin’s in-law had plenty to say about the hiring of Hugh Freeze, with none of it being good, and now we have more proof that the Boise native and his family are no longer fans of the Auburn football program.
Harsin’s daughter Dayn shared an Instagram story of her posing with her dog while sporting an Alabama Crimson Tide shirt. There certainly seems to be no going back when it comes to AU and the Harsin family following a turbulent tenure together.