As it turns out, Bryan Harsin was a terrible fit at Auburn, especially on the recruiting trails.
While Auburn made great headway on the recruiting trails during Early National Signing Day on Wednesday, the end results truly revealed how terrible of a fit Bryan Harsin was down on The Plains.
The former Boise State head coach did not make it through his second season at Auburn. Once former athletic director Allen Greene was replaced by John Cohen, that was all she wrote for Harsin in the SEC. Although he will resurface and rebound at some point, this is what happens when you try to recruit our-kinda-guys when your team’s biggest rivals are Alabama and Georgia.
Auburn ended up with the No. 20 class for 2023 on Early National Signing Day. Hugh Freeze and his new Tigers staff were able to flip nine players down the stretch. Harsin would never!
Potato Man bad: Auburn and Bryan Harsin went together like lamb and tuna fish
Per Reddit CFB, here are the nine players Freeze and his staff were able to flip to Auburn.
- Darron Reed (LSU)
- Tyler Johnson (Texas Tech)
- Colton Hood (Michigan State)
- Connor Lew (Miami)
- Sylvester Smith (Tennessee)
- Stephen Johnson (Arkansas)
- Izavion Miller (Ole Miss)
- Keldric Faulk (Florida State)
- Kayin Lee (Ohio State)
Of their 22 commits for this past cycle, none were five-stars, nine were four-stars and 12 were three-stars. This is not about cleaning up in recruitment right away, but rather giving Freeze and his staff something to build for 2024 and beyond. You have to start somewhere, as Freeze is tasked with rebuilding the Auburn recruiting footprint after Harsin dragged it to rock bottom.
Of the nine players who flipped to Auburn, four were heading to other SEC schools and three were going to play at division rivals of the Tigers. While nobody flipped over from Alabama or Georgia, not having players like Darron Lee, Stephen Johnson and Izavion Miller going to places like LSU, Arkansas and Ole Miss is certainly a step in the right direction. Auburn can definitely build off this.
What this boils down to entirely is recruiting will never be small potatoes in SEC Country. The recruiting footprint is more fertile in this part of the country. Players who grow up in the southeast want to play in the SEC, so a head coach of an SEC program needs to play the game and be part of it. Otherwise, he and his program will get lapped like Harsin and Auburn was when he was there.
Freeze has a big challenge ahead of him, but getting nine players to flip is a fantastic start for him.
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