Bryan Harsin breaks down ‘key’ to success at Auburn

Bryan Harsin is not yet on the sideline as an Auburn head coach, but he was in attendance for Friday’s VRBO Citrus Bowl. Before the Tigers trailed Northwestern by a 14-6 margin at halftime from Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, Harsin joined ABC’s broadcast for an interview during the second quarter. Of his comments, he pointed to one main key in succeeding at Auburn.

“A lot of people don’t know me and that was one thing I wanted to make sure as we go through this process they’ll get an opportunity to get to know me,” Harsin said. “When we can get in the community, that’ll help us. Right now, the focus is not just me, but the type of coaches we’re going to bring in here. I know the importance of Auburn football. I know from conversations I’ve had how excited coaches and future players want to be a part of what we’re doing. My responsibility is to show that vision and why I came to Auburn and things I believe about this program.

“I want to find those who believe in what we’re doing at Auburn. That’s the key to our success moving forward.”

Harsin, 44, went 69-19 overall and 45-8 against Mountain West play as Boise State’s head coach from 2014-20.

“Guys that want to be a part of that, that want to work hard, that want to do things right, that want to come out here and play good football and championship football and do it consistently, and to share that message and to find those that are going to believe in what we’re doing at Auburn — for me, that’s going to be the key to our success as we move forward is finding those types of people that want to be a part of what we want to do.”

Harsin echoed Thursday’s sentiments, where he likened the Tigers’ coaching-staff decisions to lessons learned from his father, a drag racer.

“When you’re going to go over 200 miles-an-hour in a car in six seconds, that thing better work, right?” Harsin said. “… We work on cars, we build cars, it takes time and people get extremely impatient. ‘Do you want it done right, or do you want it right now?’ That was one of his favorite lines right there. … ‘I can make it run, it’s not gonna run like you want to.’

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“So it’s critically important that we get the right people in here. It’s critically important that we get the right coaches in here. It’s critically important that we get coaches in here that understand, like I feel right now, of what Auburn really stands for.”