What Does a New Coach Mean for Auburn’s Aesthetics?

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On December 24th, Auburn introduced Bryan Harsin as the new Auburn football head coach. Almost immediately, rumors, questions, and good-natured jokes began to circulate about what Harsin may bring to his new school’s traditional aesthetic history.

Why?

Well, because of the school he spent much of his life. Today, we’ll discuss what potential changes Harsin could bring to Auburn’s aesthetics.

Will Auburn adopt a colored turf?

Simple answer – no.

You can take the coach out of Boise but you can’t take the Smurf Turf out of the coach!

(don’t blame me, blame @CfieldsVFL) pic.twitter.com/CsGoGEYWus

— Clint Richardson (@Clintau24) December 22, 2020

As Harsin played and coached in multiple positions at Boise, he has spent much of his life surrounded by the famous blue football field. Boise installed the artificially-colored surface prior to the 1986 season and they haven’t looked back.

Would Bryan Harsin even be capable of doing such a thing at Auburn, a school that boasts such a proud turf management program?

Not at all.

As long as Auburn is an agricultural school, the Auburn football team will continue to play on real grass.

Just a few years ago, Auburn Baseball made a change to Plainsman Park and added artificial turf throughout the foul area. With how upset many Auburn fans were at that change, they’re bound to lose it if Pat Dye Field ever turned to turf.

Will we see a new endzone design?

Another simple answer – no.

Auburn’s endzone design hasn’t changed since 2006 (minus 2009, when the boarders didn’t include orange and navy) when the school adopted a new wordmark. The new Copperplate font was utilized throughout the university and was to adorn just about every aspect of the brand.

Prior to that, Auburn had kept the endzones incredibly simple with a sans-serif font. Only in 1998 did things change when Terry Bowden attempted to make his mark on Auburn’s aesthetics and added the 1990s arching wordmark to the endzones.

When Tommy Tuberville was brought in as head coach in 1999, he quickly reverted back to the traditional endzone design.

Since that time, the field hasn’t seen many large-scale changes. And that’s on purpose. Auburn, like most schools and businesses in the last twenty years, has truly taken ownership of their branding and will do just about whatever they can to protect it.

So no, Harsin will not change the field design because he pretty much doesn’t have the authority to do so.

But Auburn has different endzone designs in bowl games!

Bowl games are different for a number of reasons. That’s a ripe opportunity to do something different. And most of the time, the bowl game organizers are over the field design. That’s the bowl game’s brand, after all.

So yes, the orange and white Auburn text on a blue background did look good. But that would be even more work and more paint for the Auburn grounds crew. It’s a challenge that, at least until now, they’ve shown they don’t want to take on.

Boise wore a ton of uniform combinations. Will Auburn do the same?

Say it with me – no.

Auburn’s uniforms have changed over the years based on the head coach’s wishes. Shug Jordan helped solidify the Auburn football uniform as we know it and the adoption of the AU logo. Doug Barfield had an obsession with orange and added orange facemasks, belts, and of course jerseys to the arsenal. Bowden added the orange drop-shadow numbers and Tuberville cleaned house with the traditional uniforms and, as discussed above, endzone designs.

Much like the field design, the coach nowadays doesn’t seem to have that authority. And again, that’s on purpose.

Despite what the coach would ever want on the field, that has to go through the equipment manager. Dana Marquez has done a wonderful job during his time at Auburn keeping the football uniforms looking solid. There have been hints at Dana pushing the envelope a bit and wanting to see some sort of change. In fact, last week’s Citrus Bowl saw some new tweaks to the helmet, but they were rather minor.

But it’s all for not when the higher-up officials at Auburn have the final say.

Auburn’s uniforms are held in such high regard around campus and it absolutely has to do with those that hold the power (and checkbooks).

Bryan Harsin has already shown respect for the traditions that Auburn holds so dearly, and I doubt that would change for the uniforms.

That doesn’t mean things absolutely won’t change under Harsin. He could come in and fight for that more than previous coaches. It may even be the most fight that any Auburn coach has ever made in regards to uniforms.

Will Harsin make Auburn switch to Nike?

Once more – no.

The Auburn-Under Armour contract runs through 2025. Under Armour’s current financial situations aside (that’s a topic for another day), nothing can be done about that contract until it expires.

Could Harsin encourage Auburn to sign with Nike after the deal is up? Absolutely. And I don’t think he would be the only coach on campus to do so.

But no, Harsin can’t change the uniform manufacturer just because he wants to.

But what about his time at Arkansas State? What about that 2013 matchup?

Oh, this one?

When Gus Malzahn coached at Arkansas State, he reportedly refused to outfit his team in the new grey alternate jerseys.

When ASU visited Auburn in 2013, they wore those grey tops in spite.

The jerseys were deemed illegal for illegible numbers.

Bryan Harsin was the ASU coach. pic.twitter.com/R3fhwFnq2T

— Clint Richardson (@Clintau24) December 23, 2020

The one where Arkansas State trotted out in “illegal” jerseys that featured illegible numbers and were penalized for them?

Yea, that has nothing to do with Harsin’s aesthetic tastes. If anything at all, it just shows that he is (possibly) a rather petty guy.

So what, if anything, will Bryan Harsin be able to change aesthetically?

Honestly? Very little.

And once again, that’s on purpose. Branding is important for any organization and Auburn takes their branding very seriously.

If every new coach at Auburn was able to make changes as they pleased, then it wouldn’t be the Auburn University brand anymore.

Harsin and the other coaches do have the opportunity to build and change their own personal branding. Gene Chizik had the jacket-thing, Gus Malzahn had the visor and sweater vest. PJ Fleck has the button-down and tie (and Row the Boat). Bill Belichick has the cutoff hoodie.

Coaches don’t indulge in creating their own brand like you see a lot of players doing (and many schools are now working directly with their student-athletes to build their brands). But, that may change one day.

What can we expect to see Bryan Harsin wear on gamedays?

Auburn coaches of late have really loved their go-to apparel choices. I personally hated laying the Malzahn Vest & Visor Tracker to rest with his dismissal last month. But will Harsin fill in that gap? It’s tough to say.

Looking through photos of his time at Arkansas State and Boise, Harsin wore a number of different styles on the sideline – hoodie, jacket, polo, quarter-zip; myriad of ball cap designs or no hat at all.

Despite the difference in weather from Boise to Auburn, I don’t know how much things will change for Harsin’s wardrobe. Expect polos and some light jackets towards the tail end of the season would be my initial guess. I don’t foresee Harsin being like Chizik and Malzahn in regards to a preferred apparel choice.

Moral of the story here is that, in today’s brand-centric world, a head coach doesn’t have as much leverage as you might think to make changes on an aesthetic level. You may see some small tweaks here and there (and know that I’ll cover it if it happens), but I wouldn’t place money on Auburn trotting out an alternate uniform solely because of the new man running things.

Boise played the uniform game long before Bryan Harsin was head coach and will continue to do so without him. The same has been true at Oregon and the majority of schools that sport a number of different looks on the gridiron.

At the very core of it all, it’s a school decision. And Auburn has shown great resilience in refusing to jump on the popular trend and play the uniform game.

Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so. When people discuss the positives or negatives of hundreds of uniform combinations, Auburn is bound to be listed alongside Alabama and others for seeing success without participating.

“But it helps in recruiting!” you may say, and that’s not entirely true either. Numerous sites have discussed the numbers on that topic. You can also look directly at the College Football Playoffs every year and see that, of the eleven teams to ever make an appearance, Oregon has made one such appearance while Alabama and Clemson have made six.

But beyond that, you can’t put such a broad blanket statement on what an 18-year-old kid wants out of his playing career. Does one player want to wear the Oregon uniforms and go home with a ton of gear? Sure, that’s his choice. Could another player want to go to Alabama and the single uniform approach means nothing to him? Absolutely.

Did I miss anything? Leave a comment and let’s discuss what you think Bryan Harsin’s impact on Auburn uniforms and aesthetics could be!

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