Bryan Harsin talks about his frustrations at Auburn

quote:

---

It's been nearly seven months since Bryan Harsin walked out of his football office at Auburn for the last time.
He did so with a $15.3 million parting gift -- the kind of pricey buyout Auburn has become known for when it comes to fired football coaches -- and a promise to himself and his family that his sights would remain straight ahead and not in the rearview mirror.
"I wasn't going to let it eat at me, no matter how s---ty some of the things were that my family had to endure," Harsin told ESPN recently in his first extended interview since being fired Oct. 31, 2022.

---

quote:

---

"There were things we didn't like. There were things that were disappointing, on and off the field. There were things that I wish I would have done better, and there were things where we got a chance to see some of the worst in people.
"At the same time, here we are. We're thriving."

---

quote:

---

"The person who bought our home in Auburn bought it as is, furniture and everything," Harsin said. "We flew the kids back, and Kes and I jumped in the car. We drove through Mississippi and Louisiana, through rainstorms, through Colorado in the snow with a truck driver in front of us. We had a hell of a time."

---

quote:

---

Things started going wrong even before he had the Auburn job. His interview with the school, which was conducted over Zoom, had some glitches. "The screen went blank during the interview. I couldn't see them, but they told me to keep on, so I kept rocking along," Harsin said. "I walked out of my office, and my wife asked me how it went. I said, 'I don't know. The screen went blank, and I couldn't even see them.'"

---

quote:

---

A university-directed investigation into Harsin and his relationships with players and staff members left him in limbo for eight days. He was retained, but during that time, social media message boards were filled with ugly rumors about Harsin and his family and their personal lives. "Everything we were going through -- these players, this program, the attacks on my character and my family -- was bulls---," Harsin told ESPN in the wake of the investigation.

---

quote:

---

Harsin is not interested in looking back, even though he says his short time at Auburn would help him be more discerning, more selective and more inquisitive when and if he decides to go back down the coaching road.
"The first thing I would say is that I would ask different questions," Harsin said. "The football piece is just one piece. It's everything else around the program that really matters. You can solve a lot of problems by asking the right questions, not the football part so much, but everything else."

---

quote:

---

Harsin isn't in the business of giving advice, but he's more convinced than ever that complete alignment from the president to the board of trustees to the athletic director is critical to win consistently in the SEC, especially when you're playing Alabama and Georgia every year.
"But we don't want to make that our problem any longer," Harsin said. "That's Auburn's problem. We've moved on and being home has never felt better."

---