Hot board: Who might Auburn football hire as offensive coordinator to replace Mike Bobo?

AUBURN — Bryan Harsin has not been hesitant to take action in his first year as Auburn football coach.

With offensive coordinator Mike Bobo's departure from the program, Harsin will now be replacing another assistant coach less than a calendar year into his tenure. He fired receivers coach Cornelius Williams four games into the 2021 season.

The offensive coordinator job will be a vital opening to fill as Auburn (6-6, 3-5) looks to elevate itself back into the upper tier of the SEC. Harsin is a head coach with an offensive background as a former quarterback, so similar offensive philosophies and collaboration will be key; Harsin favors a pro-style system with varying personnel and formations.

Here are five early candidates who might be considered.

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Eric Kiesau

When Harsin fired Williams after Auburn's close shave against Georgia State, he immediately turned to Kiesau, one of the few assistants he brought with him from Boise State. Kiesau was his offensive coordinator there for the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

Kiesau played quarterback at Portland State and was Fresno State's interim head coach in 2016 before joining Harsin at Boise State as receivers coach in 2017. Kiesau was 0-4 in his interim head coaching stint. His coaching career began at Utah State and also went through Cal, Washington and Colorado, where he worked under Dan Hawkins, the former Boise State head coach who gave Harsin his start.

If Harsin plans to make an inside move, Kiesau will likely be the one. Both of the assistants Harsin has fired were coaches with whom he had no past connections. The head coach has spoken highly of Kiesau.

Scott Huff

Washington's five-year offensive line coach is highly respected but might be looking for a new job after the Huskies fired head coach Jimmy Lake. It's unclear whether new coach Kalen DeBoer will retain any of his staff, but Washington's offensive line had a down year in 2021.

Huff was close with Harsin at Boise State, where both climbed the ranks in the Chris Petersen coaching tree. They were Broncos assistants from 2007-10, and when Harsin returned as head coach in 2014, he kept Huff on staff. In 2016, Harsin promoted Huff to co-offensive coordinator, and Huff was a finalist for the Broyles Award for best assistant coach in the country that year. He moved on to Washington the next season.

Mike Sanford Jr.

Sanford is another timely candidate with past connections to Harsin. When Harsin was hired as Boise State's head coach in 2014, he brought in Sanford as his offensive coordinator. Sanford spent a year there then took the same job at Notre Dame. He spent two years there, two years as the head coach at Western Kentucky (where he had a record of 9-16) and one year as Utah State's offensive coordinator before moving back into power conference football. Sanford was on Minnesota's staff the last two seasons, but head coach P.J. Fleck fired him Monday.

When Sanford took the job at Minnesota, he replaced Kirk Ciarrocca, who left for Penn State after the Golden Gophers' unprecedented success in 2019. (Ciarrocca's Nittany Lions beat Auburn this season.) Under Sanford, Minnesota's pass offense productivity declined. Quarterback Tanner Morgan dropped from 250 to 196 yards per game in 2020, and the Gophers then became a more run-heavy offense in 2021 (69% of snaps were runs).

Like Harsin, Sanford is a former Boise State quarterback. His father is a longtime coach.

Zak Hill

Hill was Harsin's offensive coordinator in Boise from 2017-19, when the Broncos won two Mountain West titles. The offense was explosive during those three years: It averaged 406.4 yards per game and 5.8 per play in 2017; 459.5 per game and 6.1 per play in 2018; and 429.4 per game and 6.1 per play in 2019, when he and Kiesau were co-coordinators.

Hill was then hired by Arizona State, where he is still the offensive coordinator and works with quarterbacks. Bobo was also Auburn's quarterbacks coach. Sun Devils quarterback Jayden Daniels completed 66.4% of passes this season but had 10 touchdown passes to nine interceptions. Hill shares Harsin's pro-style philosophy and likes using big tight ends in the passing game. Arizona State's Curtis Hodges has 373 receiving yards this season.

Joe Moorhead

Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal's name has surfaced as a possibility for several job openings, and if he were to leave, the Ducks' assistant coaches might go flocking to other places too. Moorhead is Oregon's offensive coordinator and was previously Mississippi State's head coach for two years before Mike Leach. Moorhead has been connected with the Akron top job and reports are that it's being finalized, but if he wants to try a return to the SEC instead of a return to head coaching, Auburn might be a compelling choice. Moorhead's Oregon offenses have averaged 31.9 and 33.2 points per game in his two seasons.

Dan Mullen

Fired from Florida in November after 13 years as a head coach in the SEC, Mullen knows the league better than most available coaches and started as an offensive specialist before climbing the ranks. He was a quarterbacks coach at Bowling Green and Utah, where he was on staff for the 2004 undefeated season. The Utes won the Fiesta Bowl against Pittsburgh that season, and Mullen moved on to Florida, where he got his introduction to the SEC as an offensive coordinator for the national champion Gators in 2008.

He was hired as Mississippi State's head coach the next season, where he stayed until returning to Florida in 2018. His Gators were in the SEC Championship Game a year ago but spiraled in 2021, and Mullen was fired before the last game with a 5-6 season record.

He would be an out-there hire, and he has no ties to Harsin, but both coaches come from a similar background: They were offensive assistants for the teams out west that established the term "BCS buster" for prowess in a smaller conference. (They never overlapped in the Mountain West.)

With so much activity on the coaching carousel, however, Mullen may yet land another head coaching gig, and he's also said to be interested in coaching in the NFL.

Kendal Briles

Could Harsin poach a coordinator from an SEC West competitor? Briles would be the guy to get. He's one of the more popular offensive coordinators in college football right now given his success in two years on Sam Pittman's Arkansas staff. The Razorbacks just put up 358 passing yards on the same Alabama team that Auburn couldn't score against.

Briles was offensive coordinator for his father, Art Briles, at Baylor from 2015-16. The Bears went 10-3 behind great offense in 2015 but declined to a 7-6 season the next year. In 2015, eventual Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham was coached by Briles.

He then joined Lane Kiffin's Florida Atlantic staff in 2017. Briles and Kiffin turned around the program after a 3-9 season, winning the Conference USA championship and a bowl game. He then had stops at Houston and Florida State before joining Pittman at Arkansas. Briles has typically run more of a spread offense.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Hot board: Who might Auburn football hire as new offensive coordinator?