Bryan Harsin details difference between mental errors and execution errors

Few coaches in the country are on a seat as hot as Bryan Harsin‘s seems to be at Auburn, at least so early into his tenure anyway. Auburn suffered a humbling 41-12 defeat at home against then-No. 22 Penn State this weekend, one that left some questioning whether the team has some serious mental issues it needs to sort through.

Harsin disputed that assessment when asked by a reporter, instead opting to clarify the difference between mental errors and execution errors at Auburn.

“There was mess-ups. There were things that we didn’t do correctly,” Harsin said. “That’s the execution piece. That’s the part I talk about where execution is the key, right, if you’ve got to be in a gap you’re in a gap. If you have to cover a man you cover a man. If you have to run the right route you run the right route.

“I mean that’s not really anything to do with the mentality, that’s simply executing the job you’re supposed to do. There’s 11 guys and they all have an assignment. I think that we’re not assignment sound, that’s an issue.”

In a season and a quarter under Harsin’s watch, Auburn has gone 8-8 and has become a virtual afterthought in the SEC West.

That obviously won’t keep fans on the Plains happy for long, so Harsin is trying to sort out with his team what needs to happen to move forward. He doesn’t really see any lack of passion or emotion from the group so much as a lack of critical focus at times.

“Mentally it’s really nothing to do with rah-rah and things like that, I mean all that stuff is there,” Harsin said. “The urgency, the energy, things like that, I mean that happens in practice. That’s all there.”

Auburn execution errors about players not doing their jobs

Many of Auburn’s issues right now, to Harsin, simply boil down to players not carrying out the tasks assigned to them.

No amount of motivational speaking in the world is going to magically put a player in the position he’s supposed to be in physically, he pointed out.

“Speeches and all that stuff, that’s not going to change the fact if a guy runs the wrong route,” Harsin said. “It’s not going to change the fact that a guy’s in the wrong gap.

“It’s pretty matter of fact, and that’s what I shared with the team. Football is pretty matter of fact. You’ve got 11 guys out there, you’ve got assignments, you’ve got to do your job. When you don’t do that and somebody exposes you on that then things happen. And you wonder why a big play or they rip off a big run or we don’t have somebody in the flat when a quarterback’s rolling out. That wasn’t designed that way. So if we execute what’s designed we have a better shot of executing our plays and they’re going to work better. At least we give ourselves a chance.”

Take care of errors and the emotion will follow

What Harsin made clear Monday in his press conference with local reporters is he’s not all that interested in the drama. And there is plenty of drama to be found around the Auburn program if that’s the route you want to take.

It’s just not an angle the head coach cares to engage with.

Instead, he’s trying to relay that simple message to his team: Just go out and do your job. Auburn’s execution errors are really that simple.

“To me that’s really what it is. It’s about execution,” Harsin said. “It’s not so much about mentality and all those things that create the drama. It’s really just matter of fact. Run the route, be in the gap, do your job. That’s really what it comes down to and that’s the message I’ve tried to send to our players and keep it very simple from that standpoint. Because we don’t want to make it bigger than it really is.

“If we do it all right, there’s emotion that comes with that when you’re executing what you’re supposed to do. Then you get to play with that energy and emotion that makes you a good player. But you’ve got to be able to do your part first.”