Former Arkansas State athletic director refutes Bryan Harsin report

Plenty of reports have come out about Bryan Harsin’s future at Auburn, but one surfaced about his time at Arkansas State. However, a former Red Wolves athletic director jumped to Harsin’s defense.

Terry Mohajir hired Harsin from Texas in 2013 and remembers when he left for Boise State after that one season. But a report from Sports Illustrated’s All Hogs suggested Harsin was going to be fired from Arkansas State if he didn’t take the Boise State job.

CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee shared the story on Twitter, and that’s when Mohajir, who’s now the athletic director at UCF, weighed in and shared his side.

“That story is 100% not true!!” Mohajir tweeted. “Very false and a lack of journalistic integrity! Whoever wrote it should have checked with me first! THE IRONY?! Bryan won a conference championship as the fourth Head Coach in four years! We fully intended and hoped he would stay!”

Harsin worked at Arkansas State for just the one season before heading to Boise State from 2014-20. He just wrapped up his first season as Auburn coach, and rumors have been swirling the last couple weeks about his job status.

Believe it or not, it’s not the strangest twist the Harsin story has taken this week.

Father of Bryan Harsin apparently calls into Paul Finebaum Show, defends son during Auburn inquiry

Paul Finebaum received an interesting call on his show on Wednesday when “Dale from Boise” called in to defend Auburn coach Bryan Harsin amid an investigation into the Tigers program. But that call led to a question: Is “Dale from Boise” Harsin’s dad, Dale?

There might be some evidence to back it up. Listen to it here. The audio starts at the 8:08 mark.

Dale Harsin is from Boise, and apparently has called Boise sports station KTIK in the past, a station spokesperson told AL.com. Plus, Finebaum even pointed out the points “Dale from Boise” was making that even had him wondering what “Dale from Boise’s” real identity was.

After all, Dale was pretty strong in his defense of Harsin. He pointed to Harsin’s recruiting at Boise State and some of the talent that came out of the program, including Kellen Moore and Jay Ajai.

Then, Finebaum questioned Harsin’s ability to recruit in the SEC. “Dale from Boise” responded again with an interesting answer.

“Well, they want him to go after the five-star players, and you don’t always have to,” “Dale from Boise” said. “Then go after players that want to play the game and want to be part of a team and not just part of being starstruck with all their great stars and stuff. I hear guys here griping about having to work too hard. He never had that problem [at Boise State]. He didn’t make them work to hard.”