Harsin creating a blended offense

AUBURN | Bryan Harsin isn’t bringing his Boise State offense to Auburn. He’s not installing longtime SEC assistant Mike Bobo’s offense either.

Auburn’s first-year head coach plans to work with Bobo and his new assistants on the offensive side of the ball to build an Auburn offense that stands on its own.

“I think the philosophies that he and I both have at the quarterback position as far as the offensive philosophies, those mesh,” Harsin said. “And then what we’re trying to do now to blend those ideas and bring this offense to Auburn that we want to create.”

Even the youngest member of the staff, wide receivers coach Cornelius Williams, has some unique connections that Harsin would like to bring into the offense. Williams played and coached under current West Virginia head coach Neal Brown when Brown was at Troy.

“I know Neal, and Neal does a great job at that wide receiver position,” Harsin said. “A little different perspective from a different style of offense that he brings to some of the things that we want to do. And so you have more knowledge in some areas where he's going to help us with the scheme and some things that he's done where hopefully that provides value for some of the things we want to do moving forward when we put this system together.”

Harsin explained that they will install the offense in stages — during spring drills, the summer workouts and fall camp. During the season, the staff will work together on scouting and game plans while Bobo will be the primary playcaller on gameday.

“Mike’s calling the plays,” Harsin said. “My responsibility right now is to help install and be there for the DNA for who we are on the offense side. The things that we’ve done and I’ve been a part of, the things that Coach Bobo and other coaches of our staff have been a part of. So as you start to talk through scheme, really what are some of the best things that we’ve all done. And it’s open discussion.

“That’s the best part about having really good coaches together is, yes we have a foundation and there’s some non-negotiables in there, but there’s a lot of things that we want to work through and try as we install it, be the very best that we can in those areas.”

Harsin joked that he’ll be calling all the touchdown plays. But he added that he doesn’t expect his staff to always agree on everything when it comes to building and implementing an offense.

“These guys have been awesome. They’re working well together. We’re having fun. We’re enjoying it,” Harsin said. “We’re able to work through some things. There’s some really good, healthy arguments in there, which you should have. To me, that’s how you develop that conviction for what it is you want to do and the system you want to put in so we can take that into the meeting rooms and share that with our players."

Spring practice is scheduled to being in mid March.