2016 Purdue Football Coaching Search: Bryan Harsin
Candidate Tier 1:
Categories: Intriguing, young, winner
Who Is He?
Bryan Harsin is currently the head coach at Boise State, a magical land where they grow only three things: potatoes, football victories and good head coaches.
Harsin played at Boise state from 1995-99, before they were the giant-killers they would become. He then went into coaching and after a year at Eastern Oregon, came home to Boise from 2001-2010. Perhaps it appeared to him that Chris Petersen was never going anywhere, so he left to do the same job at Texas that he had been doing at Boise. Maybe he had someone in his ear telling him he could wind up as the Texas head coach once Mack Brown rode into the sunset? I bet Texas fans wish that’s how it played out at this point. But it didn’t and Harsin wound up the head coach at Arkansas State for just one season, in 2013. He went 7-5 at age 36 and then was brought home to replace Petersen at Boise. Since then he’s gone a lovely 27-6, including a Fiesta Bowl win following the 2014 season. Last year, his Broncos went “only” 9-4 and now in 2016 he’s got them off to a 6-0 start.
Why would he be successful at Purdue?
Because he doesn’t know how to do anything but win football games. Word is Bryan Harsin has never operated a motor vehicle and has no idea how to operate the lever on a toaster. His brain simply has no use for such trivial details – all it contains is winning football strategy.
No, I made that all up. I have no idea what Bryan Harsin knows how to do – I mean, except for football winning. I know he knows how to do that.
I do think he’d be successful at Purdue because he has the “pedigree” of coming from Boise, which is still considered an “upstart” of sorts. He could instill that David and Goliath, us-against-the-big-boys mentality that I think took root when Tiller and Brees made it so Purdue feared nobody.
Why could he flop at Purdue?
Similar to some of the other young guys that aren’t big names, recruiting could be a challenge. I think it would be less of a challenge for Harsin since he’s a winner and can point to his success. But he’s not as well known in the Midwest and south where Purdue needs to pluck some diamonds in the rough. If he could convince some of the pacific northwest kids to come to the Midwest, then maybe all is well.
Would he come to Purdue?
Possibly, though I’d lean towards the not likely side. He’s spent most of his career in the west and much like his mentor Petersen, he feels like a candidate for a Pac 12 job one day.
