JONESBORO — Before climbing aboard a flight Tuesday to meet with Bryan Harsin, Arkansas State Athletic Director Terry Mohajir made a promise to ASU System President Chuck Welch and ASU Chancellor Tim Hudson regarding his search for a new football coach.
“I will not put a candidate in front of you that I don’t think you can hire right away,” Mohajir said.
Those words proved true later that night when the search committee offered the job to Harsin, Texas’ co-offensive coordinator.
Harsin accepted the offer, a move officials hope brands ASU as an ascending program that is willing to invest dollars and patience in forward-thinking offensive minds.
After spending the past year under Gus Malzahn talking about how it would like to model its program after Boise State, ASU hired the man who oversaw the Broncos offense from 2006 to 2010, when the program went 61-5 and won two Fiesta Bowls.
Just don’t expect ASU’s athletic director to use the “Boise State of the South” line that much anymore. Mohajir said the Red Wolves want Harsin to apply his knowledge while building a unique identity for the program.
“I won’t use that term a lot, but who was the guy that called all those plays?” Mohajir said.
Harsin’s offensive system has similar traits to those used by former ASU coaches Malzahn and Hugh Freeze, both of whom left after a lone season to fill openings at SEC programs.
Harsin uses diverse formations and sprinkles in plenty of motion, mixing in Spread, pro-style and Pistol concepts.It leans toward the pass first, although two of Harsin’s Boise State teams averaged more than 200 yards rushing per game.
Harsin describes his offense as a two-back system that emphasizes downhill running but is still “very prostyle” and similar to previous ASU offenses as far as being up-tempo and its use of the Spread. The quarterback also works under center in addition to Shotgun formations.
Like Freeze and Malzahn, Harsin has a penchant for gadget plays and spreading the ball among skill players, including using offensive linemen as eligible receivers.
“I already asked how many of our receivers can throw,” Harsin said jokingly Wednesday.
Mohajir said Harsin’s decade as a tight ends coach at Boise State and two seasons sharing offensive coordinator duties at Texas showed a critical diversity that is needed in Jonesboro.
“I wanted to find a guy that has helped build a program, but also seen the top,” Mohajir said. “He knows building a program is as rewarding as being on top. The view is the best when you’re doing that.”
Harsin’s $700,000 annual salary represents only a $25,000 raise from what he earned at Texas and a $150,000 pay cut from what Malzahn earned as part of his five-year deal, but that difference hasn’t disappeared.
Instead, ASU’s booster club, the Red Wolf Club, will put $750,000 annually into a pool of money to pay assistant coaches, according to Harsin’s two-page letter of agreement with the university.
“We’re upping the salary pool, definitely,” Mohajir said. “That’s something we had to do.”
Assembling an elite staff was touched on by Harsin.
“It’s going to start with getting a staff,” Harsin said. “We’re putting together the best staff in the country, putting together the best staff for these players so they can go out and be successful.”
But there is also the matter of a $1.75 million buyout - which is substantially more than Malzahn’s $700,000 figure - that is meant to ward off potential suitors and prevent ASU from having another coach plucked by a larger program after only one season.
“I am all about the process,” Harsin said of his commitment to ASU. “I am all about the opportunity to build and continue success, and sustain that and be a part of that.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 12/14/2012