Inside Look At Recruiting In Alabama Does Not Reflect Well On Auburn's Bryan Harsin
Bryan Harsin may not last much longer at Auburn. The program is in a helicopter spiral after a disappointing 2021, tumultuous offseason and blowout loss to Penn State last weekend.
As a result of the chaos on The Plains, Harsin's job is at risk. He isn't on the hot seat— he's on the scorching, burning, flaming, boiling, searing, blistering seat. If the Tigers lose to Missouri this weekend, there is a very good chance that Harsin does not have a job come Sunday morning.
Bryan Harsin's future at Auburn is currently grim. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)
Either way, he's in trouble. However, because Auburn does not have an athletic director at the moment, there is a lot of debate about how the firing process can best play out.
In the meantime, Harsin can only keep his head down. He still has a job, so he has to continue to focus on winning football games and recruiting — even if he isn't likely to actually coach any incoming recruits.
To make things worse, it does not sound like Bryan Harsin is doing a great job recruiting in the state of Alabama
Earlier this week, Aaron Suttles of The Athletic provided an inside look at Alabama recruiting. It did not reflect well on Harsin.
High school coaches in the Yellowhammer State spoke anonymously about the the recruiting efforts and styles of major in-state college programs. Many of them went in on Auburn, particularly Harsin, and how the program recruits its players.
One coach said that Harsin has never even been to his school.
Coach 2 (Mobile area): "I gotta be careful because I don’t want to get hung out here, but Bryan Harsin hasn’t been to our school. He’s never been here. That’s been a surprise. They’ve got a lot of outstanding recruiters on their staff, though. I think that (Harsin) has put together a good staff. But I don’t know the head coach there."
Another said the same, pointing out that it is the opposite with Nick Saban.
Coach 6 (Central Alabama): "(Offensive line coach) Will Friend does an excellent job. (Running backs coach) Carnell Williams is good. They’ve got a lot of outstanding young coaches. I think they’re going to do well, but I don’t know their head coach at all. Nick Saban comes to our school every year — every year he makes a trip to our school, whether he’s recruiting a guy or not."
They were not alone.
Coach 1 (Birmingham): "Honestly, they do a poor job in recruiting. I’ve never met the man (Harsin) in person. I do want to meet the guy because I think a lot of my kids could play at Auburn. But just as a rule, they just haven’t done a very good job recruiting our kids."
With that all being said, one Alabama high school football coach did say that Harsin spent extra time talking to him when other coaches may not.
Coach 4 (West Alabama): "I took a player down there that had some good offers, and I don’t think they realized who he was. But I’ll tell you something cool about Harsin, which is probably not the popular thing right now. I talked to that joker for about 45 minutes on the phone. That’s not something you see coaches in Division I doing. You don’t see any head coaches doing that really. I thought that was really cool. I thought he did a good job."
And to Harsin's credit, the Tigers currently hold the No. 32-ranked college football recruiting class for 2023. So it isn't all bad.
That doesn't change the fact that what was said about Auburn and Harsin from the coaches in Central, Mobile and Birmingham is not a good look. It will be interesting to see what happens to the current class if he is fired or if the losing trend continues.