Daily briefing: On Bryan Harsin, interim coaches and Mike Gundy’s blunt self-assessment
Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:
Bryan Harsin an example of how SEC isn’t for everyone
No, Bryan Harsin didn’t make it to November as Auburn’s coach. Auburn is 3-5 this season and went 9-12 in less than two full seasons under Harsin. To put a finer point on it, the Tigers are 4-9 in SEC play, and Harsin’s other five wins came against Akron, Alabama State, Georgia State, Mercer and San Jose State. It is no knock against Harsin to say the SEC is not for everyone – ask Bret Bielema – but Harsin, who gave off the vibe of being a tightly wound introvert, appeared spectacularly misplaced at Auburn. The firing of Gus Malzahn and the hiring of Harsin brings to mind what I call the Rule of Fulmer: Just because you fire a coach doesn’t guarantee you’ll get better. Sometimes you get worse. Malzahn’s four-loss seasons look pretty good from here.
Interim coaches have done well in 1st games this season
Say this – Harsin’s firing bodes well for interim coach Cadillac Williams’ debut Saturday at Mississippi State. The six FBS teams that have fired their coaches during the 2022 season have gone 4-2 in their next game. Charlotte fired Will Healy last week and routed Rice 56-23. Wisconsin fired Paul Chryst last month and routed Northwestern 42-7. Colorado fired Karl Dorrell and beat California 20-13. Georgia Tech fired Geoff Collins in September and won 26-21 at Pitt. We’ll see what happens at Charlotte; the turnaround didn’t last at the other three. But it’s easy to see how the sense of relief would be palpable at Auburn this week.
Kansas State out-everythinged Oklahoma State
On the Monday after the worst loss of his 18-year coaching career, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy applied his typically blunt assessments to the Cowboys’ 48-0 loss at Kansas State. Having watched the video, Gundy said, “They physically whipped us, they outcoached us and they had better plans than we did, and I didn’t do a good job of preparing us.” Because of injuries, Gundy altered his practices last week, and allowed Monday that he might have overreacted. But he made it clear that Chris Klieman’s Wildcats had a very good day as the Cowboys had a very poor one. “They played very well for what they were trying to accomplish,” Gundy said. “Chris is a good guy. Like he said after the game to me, ‘I don’t know if we could have played a more perfect game against y’all.’ I said, ‘Well, you picked a shitty day to do it.’ ”