NEXT MAN UP
Boise State's Harsin adept at following Idaho icons
When Chris Petersen coached Boise State to great heights and became an Idaho icon, talk around campus was how difficult it would be for the next Bronco coach.
“I feel sorry for the guy who follows Chris,” Boise State athletic director Curt Apsey admitted saying a time or two during those eight Petersen seasons.
Under Petersen, Boise State went from isolated little football school to a national brand. The Broncos were 92-12 under Petersen, with four top-10 finishes, two undefeated seasons and two Fiesta Bowl victories.
Petersen trumped the long list of successful Boise State football coaches — Houston Nutt, Dirk Koetter, Dan Hawkins — by staying longer and winning more, all the while with a down-to-Earth demeanor that charmed all of college football.
Big shoes to fill. But Bryan Harsin has filled them.
Harsin’s Broncos play Oklahoma State in Stillwater, one of three college football games Saturday matching top-25 teams. Harsin hasn’t won at the same rate as Petersen did (who could?), going 44-12 over four-plus seasons, but his Broncos remain as competitive as ever. They are ranked 17th in the current AP poll.
Boise State’s proud tradition has not withered, and Petersen’s mighty shadow is not the first that Harsin has survived.
You want to talk about Idaho icons? How about Jake Plummer, the salty quarterback who led Arizona State to the 1997 Rose Bowl and spent 10 years as an NFL quarterback, making 136 career starts.
Heady stuff for a kid from Idaho.
Plummer was a star quarterback at Boise’s Capital High School. His successor as Capital’s QB? Bryan Harsin.
“I think I follow everybody,” Harsin said. “That’s just the nature of how things have been. Jake ... he was pretty good, too. To me, somebody’s got to do it. I guess I’ve always looked at it like, might as well be me.”
Harsin stayed in his hometown for college, spending four years as a backup quarterback at Boise State, for four head coaches. He spent a year coaching at Eastern Oregon, then was summoned back to Boise by new Bronco coach Dan Hawkins.
In 2006, when Petersen took over as head coach, he made Harsin offensive coordinator. Harsin called the plays for that memorable Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma.
In 2011, Mack Brown hired away Harsin to be Texas’ offensive coordinator. After two years in Austin, Arkansas State hired Harsin as head coach. One year later, Washington finally won the Petersen sweepstakes, and Boise State summoned Harsin home.
“Bryan was very well aware what that challenge would be,” said Apsey, a longtime associate athletic director who became Boise State’s AD in 2015. “But he was very smart in his intentions to continue the traditions that have gone on here.
“He understood the culture and he saw maybe how it was done the right way. He hasn’t veered too far from that. I’ve been very impressed how Bryan has handled that. Especially since 2007, the expectation of our football program is at an all-time high.”
Harsin says everyone “makes a big deal” of following such an iconic coach, but that such a task is overrated.
“He is one of the best and still is, and will continue to be, and when it’s all said, he will be one of the very best to ever do this,” Harsin said. “That’s not what I’m trying to compare myself to. I’m just trying to make sure I do my part here.
“I’m appreciative I had a chance to work for a guy like Pete. I think that’s something, more than trying to outdo anybody, or what anybody else did, I’m glad I got a chance to work for a guy like that. Glad I got a chance to work for a guy like Mack.”
Harsin’s Texas years were not great for Longhorn football.
The 2011 ‘Horns went 8-5, and quarterbacks David Ash, Case McCoy and Garrett Gilbert combined to throw 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
The 2012 ‘Horns went 9-4, and Ash became a solid quarterback.
“I learned quite a bit,” Harsin said of his Austin days. “Just getting away, into a new culture. And taking things I learned at Boise and trying to apply and adapt to a different way of doing things. It was one of the best experiences of my life to be around Mack Brown.
“I wish we had done a better job for him, when we were there, because he’s a phenomenal person, a phenomenal coach. He’s a major reason, along with Coach Peterson, why I wanted to be a head coach and had the opportunity to actually do that.”
But being away from Boise for three years made Harsin appreciate Boise, from the culture instilled to the achievements earned. Boise State football is a closeknit operation, from the pride the city and the state now feel toward the Broncos, to the coaching staff that includes almost half Boise State graduates. Including a certain head coach who knows what it’s like to fill the shoes of an Idaho icon.