Bryan Harsin addresses sudden departure of Austin Davis

Auburn and Bryan Harsin hired former Seattle Seahawks assistant Austin Davis as its offensive coordinator just over a month ago, but he is already leaving the program. In a school press release which quickly followed the news, Davis cited personal reasons for his quick exit.

During an interview with ESPN’s Alex Scarborough, Bryan Harsin addressed the sudden departure of Austin Davis and how it impacts the program moving forward.

“Obviously he had some personal things,” Harsin told Scarborough. “That’s real life. Real life happens in football as well. So we have to be able to adjust and respond.

“We will adjust and we’ll bring somebody in that’s going to help us be successful. And the one thing about our offense is we do have great coaches on staff that know our system. It’s not slowing us down right now from getting our players better, and getting the new players that we brought in to learn what we’re doing. So who we bring in is going to enhance what we’ve already started.”

Auburn announced Davis as its next offensive coordinator after the departure of Mike Bobo, who was let go after just one season with the Tigers. As they now look for its third offensive coordinator of the one-year Bryan Harsin era, stability and experience become critical as spring practice approaches.

In addition to the instability at offensive coordinator, Harsin replaced his defensive coordinator after just one year too, promoting Jeff Schmedding after the departure of Derek Mason.

Status of Zach Calzada, Robby Ashford

One other question surrounding the departure of Austin Davis is how it will impact the arrival of two transfer quarterbacks who chose the Tigers after the hire in January. Former Texas A&M starting quarterback Zach Calzada and Oregon backup Robby Ashford made career-changing moves and now will not play for the quarterback coach and offensive coordinator they signed up under.

“Were they shocked? Is it something that, OK, we have to work with someone else at this point? Yes, but they also have coaches on staff that are there for them,” Harsin said to ESPN. “The quarterbacks have myself, you know, I’ve worked with that group. If they need something, they come to me and really all the guys on our team, but offensively in particular, I’m able to help those guys a lot more than most, especially at that position.

“So those guys have been awesome. You know what? They’re very resilient. Things happen, and they take it all in, they process it and they move on.”