Bryan Harsin has interviewed for Oregon job, per report

The Mountain West has lost three coaches this offseason all due to being let go, but Boise State might be the first team this offseason within the conference to lose their coach to another school.

Oregon is narrowing in on its coaching search to replace Mark Helfrich and Bryan Harsin is in the mix. Fox Sports is reporting that Harsin and Duck officials have spoken to each other, and ESPN’s Brett McMurphy is reporting that he has already interviewed for the opening.

Another candidate in the mix is Willie Taggart out of South Florida and he met with Oregon athletics director Rob Mullens earlier this week on Thursday. Taggart has rebuilt the Bulls from two wins in his first year and has improved each year with four, eight and now 10 wins this year.

Western Michigan’s P.J. Fleck is also a name that is in the mix and deservedly so with a 13-0 record this year and a berth to the Cotton Bowl. He also has 30 wins in four seasons and similar to Taggart has gone through rebuilding a program.

Harsin has been a head coach for four seasons with a record of 38-13 at Arkansas State and three others at Boise State, has a pair of conference titles in that time and won the 2014 Fiesta Bowl.

The Oregon job is going to be a rebuild and Harsin has never had to coach in that environment like some of the other candidates. He took over the head job at Arkansas State form a team that won a conference title the year prior and he then came to Boise State he took over the Broncos program that was flourishing under Chris Petersen.

This may not be a deal breaker for Oregon to pick a coach who has not gong through those struggles, but it is also not easy to keep a good program up at a high level. Plus, Harsin also has had to deal with multiple coordinators all while keeping Boise State ranked and in contention for a conference title every year.

Football Scoop took a deeper look at candidates and said, “Harsin is in a rhythm at Boise, one he can maintain for a long time. Coaches we have spoken with aren’t so sure the upside is worth the risk associated with this move.”

There is always a risk of taking a bigger job which can have a lot more pressure, but there is also to consider that Harsin could be comfortable at Boise State as he grew up there, played quarterback and is now their head coach.

However, money is a big motivating factor for switching jobs and going from the Mountain West to a Pac-12 school would more than double Harsin’s salary as Oregon was paying Helfrich $3.3 million while Harsin was paying $1.3 million per year.

There is no word if Harsin is even a finalist but as of now just him and Taggart are the known candidates who have interviewed for the open job in Euguene.