Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin appears to be speedrunning the prominent flaws of the last several Florida head coaches.
He reportedly has a deeply divided locker room, similar to but for different reasons than UF at the end of the Urban Meyer era. Harsin has somehow already started burning through assistants faster than Will Muschamp did. He lost to teams he shouldn’t have while putting up anemic point totals like Muschamp as well, and he tried to find a way to lose to an inferior G5 team like Jim McElwain did his first year.
Then like Dan Mullen, he has underperformed the school’s norms in recruiting. The top-rated signee in the Tigers’ 2022 class was rated No. 141 nationally in the 247 Sports Composite, which for comparison lags the three or four top-100 recruits Mullen signed in each of his recruiting classes. Mullen’s first non-transitional class in 2019 would rate 17th nationally that year if you only look at the 19 players who made it into school and stayed to fall camp. Harsin’s haul of 18 recruits ranks 18th this year. None of this bodes well for the future, especially when annual opponents Texas A&M, Alabama, and Georgia all just signed blowout classes.
It’s somehow even worse than all that, though. The 247 Sports transfer tracker shows 19 Tigers having hit the portal since November 30. A few of them haven’t chosen destinations and could theoretically stay at Auburn, but it goes to show the danger of having poor team chemistry in the one-time transfer rule era.
Harsin didn’t immediately jump out as a candidate to possibly be fired after one year – and as of this writing, he hasn’t been yet – though his 6-7 record was worse than any single year in the Gus Malzahn era. When you look at where things have gotten right now though, it becomes conceivable.
It’s even more conceivable when you remember how chaotic the leadership structure is at Auburn. A year ago some high-placed boosters tried to ram through a scheme to fire Malzahn and replace him with then-DC Kevin Steele, and athletic director Allen Greene had to win a high stakes contest of wills just to be able to run the coaching search the way he wanted to.
Then a few days ago, outgoing president Jay Gogue decided to speak publicly to the board of trustees about how they’re essentially running an investigation of why so many players and assistants have chosen to leave. Most people would’ve kept internal things internal until a decision had been made, but that’s scarcely ever been the Auburn Way.
This kind of thing is why Billy Napier is the head coach at Florida and not at Auburn. He was an early top candidate before reportedly turning it down. And why Brent Venables is the head coach at Oklahoma and not Auburn. Venables said publicly at his intro presser at OU that a lack of alignment was the reason he didn’t go to AU.
If that word “alignment” sounds familiar, it’s because Scott Stricklin touted the alignment at Florida when he announced Mullen’s firing. We now know that he’d been looking into Napier for weeks by that point, and Napier had turned down more than just the Auburn job as he waited to find a situation where he’d get all the resources and alignment he wanted.
I do think Stricklin was right about alignment at Florida. There are never stories about Bull Gators plotting coups against coaches or the president’s office meddling in athletic affairs. UF historically hasn’t spent as freely as some places just because a coach asks for it, and that caused friction with some past head coaches.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence, however, that a guy in Napier who is legendary for his planning and attention to detail managed to secure the largest spending commitment in program history before he signed his contract. Stricklin’s job likely being on the line if his second football coaching hire fails probably didn’t hurt either.
Regardless, the current college football powers are models of alignment.
Saban truly is the Nicktator in Tuscaloosa, and woe be to his successor once the animal spirits there are no longer under his iron fist. Ohio State and Oklahoma almost never go through down periods because they’re proudly football factories. Clemson gives off the distinct impression that it’d cut every other sport to focus on football if it could under NCAA rules.
Georgia fans used to complain endlessly about the program and specifically then-AD Greg McGarity being cheap in the Mark Richt era, but that changed once everything aligned behind Kirby Smart. Texas A&M had all the resources necessary to be a reliable contender in terms of money, facilities, and recruiting footprint but could never get its act together until Scott Woodward and Jimbo Fisher herded all the cats. If the Aggies can find a quarterback, they’ll soon be in the top echelon too.
Florida doesn’t have to be exactly like those programs, and it doesn’t want to be. UF cares more than any of those schools about where it ends up in the Director’s Cup standings for overall athletic program success.
But for now, the alignment in Gainesville is as good as it’s ever been. The head coach isn’t making veiled and not-so-veiled comments about the state of the facilities. The checkbook is open to hire as many staffers as they can find good candidates for. Fans and boosters are beginning to line up to fund NIL schemes of various types, and the UAA brought one of the more prominent ones in close via a direct sponsorship arrangement.
It’s not only a contrast to the perpetual Dumpster fire at Auburn but also to the post-Meyer era at UF. The Gators’ head coach both wants to put forth full effort in all phases, which strangely can’t be taken for granted, and he’s getting everything he wants as far as anyone can tell.
It’ll literally take years to find out if Napier can sustain success, as Stricklin identified as the goal upon Mullen’s firing, but it won’t be for lack of alignment.