The responses to the last few Harsin articles here seem mostly pessimistic. What exactly were people expecting? Harsin ran great offenses under Petersen and mostly above average offenses elsewhere. Will it translate? We’ll see but who did you guys think was lining up to take the OC job at Cal under a lame duck coach on the hot seat who hasn’t done better than 7-5 in a regular season in almost a decade of head coaching? They made a reasonable hire in time for the portal to open. I’m as negative as anybody about Wilcox’s tenure but, objectively, they could’ve done a lot worse here.
I think expectations are probably around where we landed. The better question is what were people hoping for. I think folks were hoping for a bold hire. Maybe someone young and on the rise with a lot of juice. You really can't blame folks for just hoping.
Yep, he is a pretty good choice given where we are. I do think our offense can improve under him. We put too much on Bloesch. But I thought we did that because we couldn't afford an OC and needed to move quickly. I guess now we have funds to hire an OC? The key of course is the offensive line. We need to mine the portal like heck and pump some NIL $$$$$ for some strong, big, agile linemen. I am glad we moved fast. Hopefully, this helps with recruiting. I suppose this wouldn't have helped us with Sagapolutele the big QB flip.
Finn: Sagapolutele was never coming to Cal. He probably used us for leverage to get more NIL money out of Oregon. However, the good news is that he is not the only four or five star qb going to Oregon to compete for that job. Akili Smith Jr. is also heading to Eugene and he will guide Lincoln HS of San Diego into the state championship this weekend. Also, don't forget that former five star Dante Moore is now completing for playing time as well. Any of those guys could very well end up at Cal in the next few years if they can't crack the starting lineup in Eugene. Our real need is the o-line so I hope that is where Wilcox directs his energies in the next few months.
Yes, I think it's a good point to remind ourselves that by dedicating a coach solely to the OL and adding an OC that is not also responsible for overseeing one of the offensive units (besides the QB room) is a value add for sure.
The Harsin situation reminds me of DeRuyter. DeRuyter was HC at Fresno State, did badly there and pissed everyone off. Fresno State people hated him, but he ended up being a great coordinator for us. Hope Harain can do the same.
I have also heard positive things about this hire from Boise State contacts. Let's give it a chance and shift our attention/concerns to who we might gain (and lose) through the portal. That will be critical as so many have noted.
He won't be able to do much better as long as we have such really sub par O lineman. The problem is recruiting GOOD talented O linemen who can academically transfer to Cal. 3 point GPA guys are hard to find.
My take is that as long as you love Cal, you're welcome here. To me Bob R was kind of like the special kid in the church youth group. Although often irritating the fact that we are talking about him indicates that he's a folk hero. And at least Bob was not a total a negabear...
100 pct agree with this. So annoying at times but he was a good member of the community. If he did indeed pass, I’ll be drinking my best bourbon in your memory Bob R
Well then, in the spirit of Bob R. (GoBears49) I am going to suggest that we scrap this Harsin thing and hire a guy named Troy Taylor from Stanfurd. Thing are not looking too great on the farm but he would make an interesting D1 FBS OC (IMO). Feel free to link Wikepedia articles below and be sure to Email Wilcox and the AD personally as to our suggestion.
Why are all you negative commenters pre judging this hire? Are you experts in coaching football? Come on. Let's look forward to next year with positive expectations.
1) he was getting paid millions, from Auburn, while sitting on his arse and watching his kid play HS football. In short, he was a family man who had just won the lotto. Would you or anyone else done different?/
Now that his boy is off to college, Harsin is only 48 YOA, is getting back in the work force (only cuz his buddy is hiring him) to collect the cherry on top. Would you or anyone else done different?
Ride the Wilcox gravy train for as long as it lasts (happens in corporate America every day) but to your point on #5, he (Wilcox) would have been fired years ago.
I can agree with 1 through 4 and you bring up a measure that's totally not germane to the discussion. College athletics isn't a publicly traded company, nor should it be.
If Harsin has been out of football since October 2022, it begs the question why he didn't succeed Spavital as Cal's OC last year. In other words, why now?
> During their travels, Harsin couldn't help but think back to a conversation he used to have with Petersen at Boise State.
> "I used to tell Pete, 'Wouldn't it be awesome if coaches could take a year, like a sabbatical, and go out there and see other things and get a different perspective on stuff?'" Harsin recalled.
> Petersen's response was always the same: "Yeah, that's called getting fired."
So how is the salary going to work while he's collecting buyout check? Are we going to benefit from it, or is Auburn going to benefit from us paying Harsin?
From what I can tell reading a few other articles, his buyout is not contingent on looking for other jobs nor offset by a new job offer.
This may let him take a slightly underpaying job that he otherwise deems a good opportunity for the next 2 years, since he knows he's also collecting his annual $1.9 million from Auburn through 2026 or '27. But that's a personal decision, not necessarily a business one.
That is called PIVOTING in media interviews. If he had an opportunity to coach the last two years, I think he would say YES. Yet, based on info it does not seem as if he was provided with an opportunity. As a result, he decided to watch and coach his own kid.
I'm okay with this hire. This is a big name hire. While I wanted Davis Webb, Wilcox can't mess up so he had to go with a proven commodity. (I think we said that 2 years ago with Spavital. He continued to mess up and is still our HC for some reason).
I'm pretty sure Davis Webb has his eyes on an NFL OC job. I think being Sean Payton's QB coach has a better trajectory than possible one and done OC at Cal unfortunately.
Nothing about this inspires any confidence that Wilcox understands the desperation of the situation. Going with a friend is what he's done before, and we've seen the results. His judgment on what constitutes a modern, productive offense is demonstrably weak. I hope for good results, but nothing about this hire inspires hope.
Actually, from a Win-Loss standpoint we are desperate, but the margin between wins and losses in 4 of our games was 9 points. Two of the teams we lost to by 1 point and 2 points were ranked teams. Any number of a few different offensive play calls in those games and we win. We are looking for an OC who can make a marginal difference. While Harsin may not be a Kenny Dillingham or Will Stein, he will be light years ahead of Bloesch. Remember, Harsin was a QB and has years of OC experience and a solid OC track record. He's a welcome change. But, as GEAT says, it means nothing if we can't coach up our O-Line. We have some decent o-linemen, they just need a scheme that works and some coaching to get them where we need them.
I hope so much you are right that he will be light years ahead of Bloesch. I'm just not going to bank on that until I see real results against decent teams. You watch the big boys play, college or NFL, and it's not just a talent differential. It's astonishing how what works for other teams doesn't for Cal. Line play. WR blocking. Repetition. A bunch of things must be missing.
Jail break screens work great if your line and receivers block well. That's another thing, our receivers need to learn how to block as well. Not sure its a strong point for our receiver coach.
Honestly, Rugbear, I see other teams have success with it, but even going back to Tedford, we've never seem to have consistent good luck running that scheme.
Seems like a reasonable hire. Probably toward the top of what we could expect. We'll probably look significantly better at winning between 5 and 7 games next year.
Similar results are not unlikely. Cal could look a little better on offense while defense takes a step back with all the graduating seniors. Carlton, Nohl Williams, Buchanan, Woodson and others will be dearly missed.
Is he stepping in before/to coach up the offense for the bowl game? Last year Spav bailed out before the bowl and our offense sucked. Anyone know the intentions here of Wilcox etc. I for one hope he gets right to it…..
It's impossible to change the entire offense in one week and I doubt if he will call the O. Maybe suggest a few things. If Bloesch leaves immediately , then the QB coach will probably call the O.
I think Auburn's definition of recruiting is very different from ours tbh. The recruiting he was able to do at Boise seems much more in line with our expectations.
You don't take a head coaching job in the SEC never having worked in the SEC and out recruit Bama, Georgia, Tennessee, or any of the other SEC teams. Harsin made a mistake taking that job and the AD of Auburn made a mistake bringing him in. There was never a good fit.
Still, being unable to recruit at Auburn is a concern.
Much like Sonny Dykes and Spavital, Harsin seems to be in no way a fit for Berkeley. We’ll see though…other coaches can recruit and the NIL aspect changes that part of the business.
The chances are probably pretty good however that both Wilcox and Harsin are looking for new jobs this time next year.
Actually, I think Harsin is the best OC fit for CAL since Wilcox has been here. Believe it or not the best fit for OC up till now in the Wilcox era has been Beau Baldwin. Musgrave, who I was wrongly enthusiastic about, was a total miss. Spav was always going to leave and go back to TX. Harsin is a buddy of WIlcox's. They are the same age. They coached together. He's the offensive version of Peter Sirmon. I actually think he's by far the best fit at OC thus far in the Wilcox era.
I think at Cal in particular, you need a guy who can punch above his weight class. And if you can't get it done at Auburn, with those resources . . . I have faith in our recruiting team, but he doesn't add much value.
I’m okay with this. This is a final move for JW and it will work or it won’t. Within a year, possibly two if next year is another 7-6 with bunch of extenuating circumstances, we’ll have a workable team or a new HC.
Dude ran ok to mediocre to horrible offenses (minus his time with the great Chris Petersen).He did well with it at one place and failed miserably and ran off a lot of talent at the other. We’ll wait and see what happens
The responses to the last few Harsin articles here seem mostly pessimistic. What exactly were people expecting? Harsin ran great offenses under Petersen and mostly above average offenses elsewhere. Will it translate? We’ll see but who did you guys think was lining up to take the OC job at Cal under a lame duck coach on the hot seat who hasn’t done better than 7-5 in a regular season in almost a decade of head coaching? They made a reasonable hire in time for the portal to open. I’m as negative as anybody about Wilcox’s tenure but, objectively, they could’ve done a lot worse here.
I think expectations are probably around where we landed. The better question is what were people hoping for. I think folks were hoping for a bold hire. Maybe someone young and on the rise with a lot of juice. You really can't blame folks for just hoping.
https://media4.giphy.com/media/SMuvUNiNtsHDi/200w.gif?cid=6c09b952r556hpzkuikuxsqm9ourzhjran2kq3ea9oni08em&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.gif&ct=g
A bold hire? We know Wilcox is still the head coach, right?
Exactly. Bold was never going to be the strategy.
When you walk straight into a wall enough times, I guess there's a hope you might think to change course the next time. But alas . . .
Yep, he is a pretty good choice given where we are. I do think our offense can improve under him. We put too much on Bloesch. But I thought we did that because we couldn't afford an OC and needed to move quickly. I guess now we have funds to hire an OC? The key of course is the offensive line. We need to mine the portal like heck and pump some NIL $$$$$ for some strong, big, agile linemen. I am glad we moved fast. Hopefully, this helps with recruiting. I suppose this wouldn't have helped us with Sagapolutele the big QB flip.
Finn: Sagapolutele was never coming to Cal. He probably used us for leverage to get more NIL money out of Oregon. However, the good news is that he is not the only four or five star qb going to Oregon to compete for that job. Akili Smith Jr. is also heading to Eugene and he will guide Lincoln HS of San Diego into the state championship this weekend. Also, don't forget that former five star Dante Moore is now completing for playing time as well. Any of those guys could very well end up at Cal in the next few years if they can't crack the starting lineup in Eugene. Our real need is the o-line so I hope that is where Wilcox directs his energies in the next few months.
I hope we snag one of those QBs!
Yes, I think it's a good point to remind ourselves that by dedicating a coach solely to the OL and adding an OC that is not also responsible for overseeing one of the offensive units (besides the QB room) is a value add for sure.
The Harsin situation reminds me of DeRuyter. DeRuyter was HC at Fresno State, did badly there and pissed everyone off. Fresno State people hated him, but he ended up being a great coordinator for us. Hope Harain can do the same.
I hope you are right. That would be an amazing outcome. Some people are not meant to be HCs.
People I trust say it’s a good hire.
Wilcox does not make good hires though, especially when they are his fishing buddies.
I have also heard positive things about this hire from Boise State contacts. Let's give it a chance and shift our attention/concerns to who we might gain (and lose) through the portal. That will be critical as so many have noted.
He won't be able to do much better as long as we have such really sub par O lineman. The problem is recruiting GOOD talented O linemen who can academically transfer to Cal. 3 point GPA guys are hard to find.
My Auburn contacts say otherwise
Aren't you supposed to be not of this earthly plane?
"lose", operative word.
A Wilcox staple….
If Rugbear was on the search committee I’m good.
Thank you. I am humbled.
Was he on the search committee? That’d be cool.
I think Bob R. was on the search committee too.
Bob R. on the search committee as the foremost, leading expert on suggestions that others should carry out.
he's been busy on the Joe Starkey monument...LOL
too funny, I kinda miss R ~ where has he been (not that I've been around much this year)?
He left after he was banned for a time
My take is that as long as you love Cal, you're welcome here. To me Bob R was kind of like the special kid in the church youth group. Although often irritating the fact that we are talking about him indicates that he's a folk hero. And at least Bob was not a total a negabear...
100 pct agree with this. So annoying at times but he was a good member of the community. If he did indeed pass, I’ll be drinking my best bourbon in your memory Bob R
I wonder if he is still E-mailing the AD on a regular basis?
Bowlesman reported a while back that he passed away unfortunately
did not know that, thank you for telling me.
Well then, in the spirit of Bob R. (GoBears49) I am going to suggest that we scrap this Harsin thing and hire a guy named Troy Taylor from Stanfurd. Thing are not looking too great on the farm but he would make an interesting D1 FBS OC (IMO). Feel free to link Wikepedia articles below and be sure to Email Wilcox and the AD personally as to our suggestion.
Nope. ;-)
Let's get this right.
1) He was out to pasture for two years;
2) He was unable to recruit;
3) The kids feedback on his coaching is not positive - it is the web - all the info is out there;
4) They last worked together 17 years ago? 17 years ago - so much has changed since then.
5) And the problem still exists with the HC performance. He would be fired if it was a publicly traded company. He must know where the skeleton lies.
Not excited about the decision and here we go again.
Why are all you negative commenters pre judging this hire? Are you experts in coaching football? Come on. Let's look forward to next year with positive expectations.
Stating facts and how I feel about the decision.
1) he was getting paid millions, from Auburn, while sitting on his arse and watching his kid play HS football. In short, he was a family man who had just won the lotto. Would you or anyone else done different?/
Now that his boy is off to college, Harsin is only 48 YOA, is getting back in the work force (only cuz his buddy is hiring him) to collect the cherry on top. Would you or anyone else done different?
Ride the Wilcox gravy train for as long as it lasts (happens in corporate America every day) but to your point on #5, he (Wilcox) would have been fired years ago.
Quite possibly he would have been fired this year too had a change at AD been able to be implemented.
I can agree with 1 through 4 and you bring up a measure that's totally not germane to the discussion. College athletics isn't a publicly traded company, nor should it be.
It was a metaphor. You do not perform you get fired.
Why does that need to be a publicly traded company? It's also true in the government sector, although I'm sure you would scoff.
Yes, also gov. Still scratching my head why he is still at Cal.
If Harsin has been out of football since October 2022, it begs the question why he didn't succeed Spavital as Cal's OC last year. In other words, why now?
His buyout in 2022 included $1.9 million annually for 4 years ($15.3 million buyout, half immediately, half split over 4 years): https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/bryan-harsin-buyout-how-much-money-auburn-owes-after-firing-football-coach-eight-games-into-second-season/
He probably wasn't looking for a job yet. And, given how his Auburn tenure and firing went, some time away was probably a very good call.
Here's a longer piece from 2023 about his coaching break – Cal gets a mention when talking about his son's QB recruitment: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/37707097/bryan-harsin-thriving-away-football-rocky-tenure-auburn
Fun quote:
> During their travels, Harsin couldn't help but think back to a conversation he used to have with Petersen at Boise State.
> "I used to tell Pete, 'Wouldn't it be awesome if coaches could take a year, like a sabbatical, and go out there and see other things and get a different perspective on stuff?'" Harsin recalled.
> Petersen's response was always the same: "Yeah, that's called getting fired."
So how is the salary going to work while he's collecting buyout check? Are we going to benefit from it, or is Auburn going to benefit from us paying Harsin?
From what I can tell reading a few other articles, his buyout is not contingent on looking for other jobs nor offset by a new job offer.
This may let him take a slightly underpaying job that he otherwise deems a good opportunity for the next 2 years, since he knows he's also collecting his annual $1.9 million from Auburn through 2026 or '27. But that's a personal decision, not necessarily a business one.
Bwahahahahahahaha! Petersen is no dummy! Davis grad.
In Interview I saw Hardin said he has been watching his son play HS QB for that time; son is headed to Idaho State to play this fall.
That is called PIVOTING in media interviews. If he had an opportunity to coach the last two years, I think he would say YES. Yet, based on info it does not seem as if he was provided with an opportunity. As a result, he decided to watch and coach his own kid.
I take it you don't have kids of your own, while getting paid millions to do nothing?
lol!
He had a $15m buyout from Auburn with $7.5m up front. Why would he take a lower paying job and give that up? Timing was great for him and CAL.
I'm okay with this hire. This is a big name hire. While I wanted Davis Webb, Wilcox can't mess up so he had to go with a proven commodity. (I think we said that 2 years ago with Spavital. He continued to mess up and is still our HC for some reason).
https://broncoswire.usatoday.com/2024/12/07/broncos-up-and-coming-qb-coach-davis-webb/
I'm pretty sure Davis Webb has his eyes on an NFL OC job. I think being Sean Payton's QB coach has a better trajectory than possible one and done OC at Cal unfortunately.
Yeah very possible. He's a very smart guy.
He may be smart, I don't know. But he doesn't strike me as a natural/organic leader. TBD.
Nothing about this inspires any confidence that Wilcox understands the desperation of the situation. Going with a friend is what he's done before, and we've seen the results. His judgment on what constitutes a modern, productive offense is demonstrably weak. I hope for good results, but nothing about this hire inspires hope.
Actually, from a Win-Loss standpoint we are desperate, but the margin between wins and losses in 4 of our games was 9 points. Two of the teams we lost to by 1 point and 2 points were ranked teams. Any number of a few different offensive play calls in those games and we win. We are looking for an OC who can make a marginal difference. While Harsin may not be a Kenny Dillingham or Will Stein, he will be light years ahead of Bloesch. Remember, Harsin was a QB and has years of OC experience and a solid OC track record. He's a welcome change. But, as GEAT says, it means nothing if we can't coach up our O-Line. We have some decent o-linemen, they just need a scheme that works and some coaching to get them where we need them.
A consistent kicker and we win at least 2 of those 4, probably 3.
A decent long snap on one of those kicks, and we definitely win that game.
I hope so much you are right that he will be light years ahead of Bloesch. I'm just not going to bank on that until I see real results against decent teams. You watch the big boys play, college or NFL, and it's not just a talent differential. It's astonishing how what works for other teams doesn't for Cal. Line play. WR blocking. Repetition. A bunch of things must be missing.
Coaching and scheme is huge. You can have the best athletes without great coaching and be a second rate team.
In the end, it'll just be more variations of jail break screens that gain two yards if we're lucky...
better than Bloesh's runs up the middle that gain one yard if we're lucky
Which WR’s have failed to block for the better part of a decade.
Awesome times.
Burl Toler's coached WRs have never blocked anyone.
Not. A. One.
Jail break screens work great if your line and receivers block well. That's another thing, our receivers need to learn how to block as well. Not sure its a strong point for our receiver coach.
Honestly, Rugbear, I see other teams have success with it, but even going back to Tedford, we've never seem to have consistent good luck running that scheme.
Totally agree!
Seems like a reasonable hire. Probably toward the top of what we could expect. We'll probably look significantly better at winning between 5 and 7 games next year.
What do you mean? We win 5-7 every year, which is why many of us are sick of mediocrity. Do you mean we might jump to winning 8-10?
Don’t want to put words in his mouth but my guess on what he is saying is that we will still win 5-7 next year but our wins will look better
Similar results are not unlikely. Cal could look a little better on offense while defense takes a step back with all the graduating seniors. Carlton, Nohl Williams, Buchanan, Woodson and others will be dearly missed.
Is he stepping in before/to coach up the offense for the bowl game? Last year Spav bailed out before the bowl and our offense sucked. Anyone know the intentions here of Wilcox etc. I for one hope he gets right to it…..
It's impossible to change the entire offense in one week and I doubt if he will call the O. Maybe suggest a few things. If Bloesch leaves immediately , then the QB coach will probably call the O.
A preview of things to come from our dual OC/OL coach.
Wilcox saw that performance and actually said “YES, gimme that.” And we expect him to get this right?
Auburn fans suggest that Harsin was not much of a recruiter. Any truth to this? Implications? Plan?
I think Auburn's definition of recruiting is very different from ours tbh. The recruiting he was able to do at Boise seems much more in line with our expectations.
You don't take a head coaching job in the SEC never having worked in the SEC and out recruit Bama, Georgia, Tennessee, or any of the other SEC teams. Harsin made a mistake taking that job and the AD of Auburn made a mistake bringing him in. There was never a good fit.
multi-million dollar mistake. poor Harsin.
at least the bay area cost of living wont be a problem for him
Still, being unable to recruit at Auburn is a concern.
Much like Sonny Dykes and Spavital, Harsin seems to be in no way a fit for Berkeley. We’ll see though…other coaches can recruit and the NIL aspect changes that part of the business.
The chances are probably pretty good however that both Wilcox and Harsin are looking for new jobs this time next year.
Actually, I think Harsin is the best OC fit for CAL since Wilcox has been here. Believe it or not the best fit for OC up till now in the Wilcox era has been Beau Baldwin. Musgrave, who I was wrongly enthusiastic about, was a total miss. Spav was always going to leave and go back to TX. Harsin is a buddy of WIlcox's. They are the same age. They coached together. He's the offensive version of Peter Sirmon. I actually think he's by far the best fit at OC thus far in the Wilcox era.
I think at Cal in particular, you need a guy who can punch above his weight class. And if you can't get it done at Auburn, with those resources . . . I have faith in our recruiting team, but he doesn't add much value.
Finally came out on my teletype after I changed the paper.
I’m okay with this. This is a final move for JW and it will work or it won’t. Within a year, possibly two if next year is another 7-6 with bunch of extenuating circumstances, we’ll have a workable team or a new HC.
Dude ran ok to mediocre to horrible offenses (minus his time with the great Chris Petersen).He did well with it at one place and failed miserably and ran off a lot of talent at the other. We’ll wait and see what happens
Exaggerated, but point made.
Next question is Who is Harsin going to bring with him to Cal?
Which coaches are we keeping?
I am okay with letting go of any coaches if we keep AT.
Bloesch, Gilbert & Saffell can all go. AT meh...he can go as well. Best to start with a clean slate.
Oh and Knownuttin Knowlton can go as well. Geez wouldn't we all like to punch him in the face!!
I thought Gilbert did well
Me too. Fernando really developed this year.
We need to get rid of someone in order to hire Harsin, and the obvious choice is Gilbert because Harsin can coach QBs too.
Agree with all of this.