Harsin's core values for new Auburn culture
AUBURN | Bryan Harsin threw out a few buzzwords during his first appearance on SEC Media Days on Thursday with discipline, toughness and conviction. It’s all part of the culture he’s trying to instill at Auburn.
How does it differ from the Gus Malzahn era? Harsin doesn’t have the answer but he’s been watching to try and figure it out.
“I didn't dive into what their core values were,” the coach said. I got a chance -- what I did when I took the job is I wanted to see it. I wanted to witness what this team was about. I wanted to see why guys show up late. I wanted to see why guys didn't finish. I wanted to see those things for myself with my own eyes and make my own determinations.
“Maybe they don't know or maybe they don't care. Either way, that was a problem. So we've had to change that.”
A shot at the previous regime? Possibly, but Harsin is trying to build the program in his image, something he spoke about at length at the podium in front of a room crowded with people getting their first taste of Harsin in person.
“You want to win, you want to be consistent, you want to be one of those teams that every single year, all right, you're in the hunt for an opportunity to play and win a championship, all right, well, you'd better bring your personal best every single day,” Harsin said.
These are things that every coach says they require from their team, but listening to Harsin, he has exactly what he wants from the Tigers in mind. Start with discipline.
“Understand what discipline is. Not disciplining, not punishment. What is discipline? Self-regulation. You've got to be able to get up and do things over and over and over to build those habits to be successful. Understand that you want to be great, here's what it takes. What comes with discipline? Toughness. If you're going to do that consistently, and in this game, you'd better be tough physically and mentally. You'd better be able to perform at your very best when the circumstances are against you.”
Those circumstances are going to get extremely interesting come the third Saturday in September as Auburn goes into a packed Beaver Stadium in what has been designated Penn State’s annual “White Out” Game. For a team looking for any sort of momentum in the early part of the season, a win would be huge. Harsin doesn’t want his team to just come out of that game, and every other game, content.
“I don't want you to survive. I want you to thrive in situations where things get really difficult and tough for you.”
That game is, though, not exactly part of Harsin’s focus right now. In a cliche as old as the coaching profession itself, Harsin mentioned that it’s all about the next game up.
“We've talked about character, and we simplified it down to just being 1-0,” Harsin said. “There's things that come with that, but, hey, focus on the task at hand, the moments that you're in, because there's a lot of distractions, and let's just go 1-0.”
In Harsin’s mind, if you go out on the six days leading up to Saturday and give it everything you can, Saturday is going to be a breeze.
“Simplifying that every single day when you can win that day and you stack those days together, then come Saturdays, what do you do? Exactly what you want. You cut it loose. You know I've won Sunday through Friday, so what am I going to do on Saturday? I'm going to win. That's what everybody wants.”
Then there’s conviction. In a nod to Ted Lasso, the Auburn coach used the word “believe” seven times in the span of 15 seconds.
“I want you to believe. And number one in yourself. Like you'd better believe you can win. You'd better believe you can make that weight. You'd better believe you can hit those 300s. You'd better believe you can run those decks. When you wake up, I want you believing in yourself, and I want you believing in what we're doing.”
The culture is brand new for Auburn under Harsin and the coach is hopeful that everyone will notice when the Tigers take the field in the season opener against Akron.
“When we go out there and play on September 4th, I want our fans and everybody that watches and tunes into our game, I want them to see a disciplined team, a tough team, and a team that believes they can win every time they step on the field and every single practice.”
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