Recruiting woes hampered Bryan Harsin at Auburn
Bryan Harsin is out at Auburn, fired Monday after going just 9-12 as head coach of the Tigers. Few would dispute if Harsin had greater success on the recruiting trail he might have been given more time at Auburn. But on the day he was ousted, the Tigers were just 29th in the On3 recruiting team rankings — and during his tenure at the school there were few significant recruiting wins to speak of.
Looking back, there were plenty of recruiting red flags.
Here are some of them …
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-In the first few weeks after Auburn hired Harsin in December 2020 to succeed the recently fired Gus Malzahn, we reached out to multiple recruits daily to get their take on Harsin. But an issue quickly emerged: Few of them had heard from him. It took weeks before some ever got a phone call. And many of these were recruits who already had signed with Auburn in December before he was hired. Every signee, every commit and every top target should have been contacted within a reasonable amount of time from him being hired. Instead, many were left completely in limbo for too long. Harsin obviously was busy putting together his coaching staff, but the ability to juggle these duties is critical to one’s success.
-As Auburn looked to the transfer portal that first winter of the Harsin era, the Tigers targeted multiple offensive linemen. One of them, who we won’t name, had a prior relationship with other members on the Auburn staff. But after speaking to Harsin for the first time, the recruit complained that Harsin “didn’t know anything” about me. We were told Harsin was in fact briefed on this recruit before the call. And it is possible the prospect was exaggerating. But if the recruit felt this way — you know the saying — perception is reality.
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-The best recruiters live and breathe recruiting. One never got the feeling that was the case with Harsin. For example, on the first day earlier this year when head coaches could get on the read and recruit, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, was out and about. So were the other notable top recruiters. One day, Smart hit 11 high schools around Florida and attended a recruit’s basketball game that evening. Harsin, on the other hand, was not on the road that first available day of this recruiting period and waited several more days to visit schools. That example to some was a microcosm of Harsin’s recruiting.
-A prominent high school coach, Josh Floyd of Hewitt-Trussville (Ala.), said at one point last year that even though his receiver Omari Kelly, who later committed to Auburn, was a high priority for the Tigers, Floyd hadn’t ever taken a phone call from Harsin and had no relationship with him. In Alabama, that’s a no-no. High school coaches in this state want some involvement. Just days after a story of Floyd saying this was published, Harsin got him on the phone. But in the meantime, we heard from multiple prominent coaches across the state who told us the same thing — they had never talked to Harsin. That lack outreach probably didn’t help Auburn’s in-state recruiting efforts. There are a couple dozen prominent coaches in the state that should have been contacted very early on. How do you quantify how much, if at all, that would have helped Auburn’s recruiting? You can’t … but quite honestly it just seems like common sense to do so.
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-Recruits generally praised Auburn with regards to their official visits, but off the record, a few of them along with people close to some prospects, felt as though Harsin wanted to “talk ball” too much on the visits. To some prospects, an official visit is generally seen as a reward for their hard work — and an opportunity to get to know a staff on a more personal level outside of just football. While some recruits have told us they liked Harsin’ emphasis discussing football philosophies, others privately felt that took some of the fun out of the officials. For a coach and a staff, that’s a tough balancing act. It’s hard to be overly critical of Harsin here, but it’s still worth pointing out.
-Friday nights are the perfect chance for college coaches to get on the road and recruit. Not really to evaluate — but to be seen. Yet Harsin often chose to watch his son’s Auburn High team play instead of using the limited time you have to recruit to attend games of top targets. While on the one hand it’s easy to understand one wanting to watch your son play, when a college is paying you a ridiculous amount of money to coach and recruit there is an expectation you will be on the road whenever the NCAA allows. To many program observers, this was seen as more missed opportunities.
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-This year, we’ve talked to more recruits who have gotten to know Harsin than in Year 1. That was a step in the right direction. But yet, we’ve been struck by the sheer number of them who would tell us they had little to no relationship with him. Or that the only real communication they’ve had with him was via texts with inspirational messages that likely were sent to numerous prospects and lacked the personal touch. Just Sunday, cornerback target Colton Hood, who officially visited over the weekend, told reporters this of Harsin: “He was asking me questions and trying to learn things about me since I haven’t really gotten to know him that much.” Auburn has recruited Hood for weeks and he’s just now getting to know the head coach? And worth noting, his father and uncle played at Auburn.
Once Hood spoke to Harsin in person, he liked him. Same with almost all the recruits we’ve interviewed. The issue was, a lot of them never talked to him that much as he saw himself as more of a delegator when it came to recruiting. Behind the scenes, his staff has worked long hours to keep Auburn involved with key recruits. If not for these people, the classes would have looked even worse.
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Now in fairness to Harsin, the extended NCAA recruiting dead period in 2021 (due to Covid-19) hurt his ability to meet recruits in person the first five months on the job. That was a significant blow. And perhaps, Auburn’s NIL situation wasn’t where it needed to be until recently for the Tigers to win major battles. Additionally, the ugly situation earlier this year when his job was in jeopardy couldn’t possibly have helped recruiting.
But the fact of the matter is, when push came to shove he simply didn’t recruit well enough in the SEC to get Auburn back toward the top. Even worse, he didn’t appear to have the desire to do so.
