Harsin hanging on
When Virginia Tech announced Tuesday Justin Fuente had been fired, it raised the number of Power 5 conference coaches already let go this season to six.
Surprisingly, Auburn’s Bryan Harsin isn’t among them.
Harsin’s departure from Auburn still seems like a foregone conclusion — especially with the Tigers going 3-2 in five home games to start this season and No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Georgia, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 23 Mississippi State, Arkansas and Texas A&M still on the schedule.
After the Tigers ended last season with a fivegame losing streak to finish 6-7 in Harsin’s debut, several players left via the transfer portal and defensive coordinator Derek Mason left for Oklahoma State, Harsin survived an investigation into the program by Auburn’s administration.
Harsin started this year No. 3 on the CBS Sports coaching hot seat list, and the two ahead of him — Nebraska’s Scott Frost and Arizona State’s Herm Edwards — have been fired along with Fuente, Georgia Tech’s Geoff Collins, Colorado’s Karl Dorrell and Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst.
“I think every program is different, I really do,” Harsin said at his news conference Monday when asked about so many coaches fired early in the season. “I don’t know if it has to do with anything bigger than that.
“I couldn’t tell you each and every program’s situation and where they are and those types of things. That’s just part of it. I don’t know if there is a better answer than that.”
Greg McElroy, a former Alabama quarterback who is an ESPN analyst and radio talk show host, said on his podcast that Colorado would be a good landing spot for Harsin given that most of his coaching career is connected to Boise State.
“Where do they go from here?” McElroy said of Colorado. “Guy that would make a ton of sense to me is Bryan Harsin.
“Of course, Bryan Harsin has come under an awful lot of scrutiny with what’s going on at Auburn. Is he in? Is he out? How does it all work right there? I don’t know. I can’t answer those things.
“All I know is that Bryan Harsin can coach football. I know that maybe he may not be the best fit for Auburn, especially those that want to control the program at Auburn. Maybe they aren’t totally onboard with him being the head coach. I know that at Boise State, that guy got it done.”
Before going to Auburn, Harsin had a 7-5 record at Arkansas State and 69-19 record at Boise State, where he also was a player and an assistant coach.