What Kiesau brings to the receiver group

[aubiefifty 17,479]

What new assistant Eric Kiesau brings to Auburn’s wide receivers room

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

5-7 minutes

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Fresno State head coach Eric Kiesau, left, confers with quarterback Zach Kline while facing Colorado State late in the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016, in Fort Collins, Colo. Colorado State won 37-0. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)AP

Bryan Harsin has turned to a familiar face to take over Auburn’s wide receivers room.

After firing first-year receivers coach Cornelius Williams on Sunday, just four games into the season, Harsin elevated offensive analyst Eric Kiesau to an on-field role overseeing the Tigers’ receiving corps. Kiesau, who joined Harsin’s support staff in February, was an offensive assistant at Boise State each of the last four seasons — including the Broncos’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach last season.

“I’m excited about Eric Kiesau,” Harsin said Monday. “He brings a lot of knowledge to that position. He’s coached it for many years…. He’s been around for a while and understands offense, understands developing and understands that position in particular.”

Kiesau is no stranger to coaching the wide receiver position, including within a Harsin-run program. Prior to being named Boise State’s offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach last season, Kiesau spent the prior three seasons as the team’s wide receivers coach.

During that time, he helped tutor a trio of All-Mountain West receivers in Cedrick Wilson (a first-team selection in 2017), Sean Modster (a second-team selection in 2018) and John Hightower (a second-team honoree in 2019). Hightower and Modster each approached 1,000 yards receiving in their All-Mountain West seasons, with Hightower catching 51 passes for 943 yards and eight touchdowns in 2019 and Modster finishing with 68 catches for 978 yards and eight scores. Wilson was the most prolific of the bunch, finishing the 2017 season with 83 catches for 1,511 yards — second-most among FBS receivers — and seven touchdowns.

That was hardly his only experience coaching wide receivers during his now 21-year coaching career. He also coached receivers at Utah State in 2001, at California from 2002-05 and at Kansas in 2014. His resume also includes time as an offensive coordinator at Colorado from 2009-10, at Washington from 2012-13 and Fresno State in 2016, as well as a prior one-year stint in the SEC as an offensive analyst for Alabama in 2015.

“I have known of him for a long time a little bit in that coaching circle,” Harsin said. “One of the things, he’s a very good teacher. He understands what we want to do. He understands how we want to do it and why we’re doing what we’re doing. He brings that experience and a level of teaching that I feel like can improve our room and help those guys understand what it is they’re trying to accomplish every play. I think he’s a good technician. He’s a very good coach. He’s very detailed.

“That would be one thing I would describe him as, he’s a very detailed coach. He has a plan. He has a vision. He has things I know we’ll do at the wide receiver position that will help us improve.”

That was the biggest impetus for Harsin in his decision to relieve Williams of his duties and promote Kiesau, whose coaching style and production he has seen firsthand in recent years. While Williams has proven himself as a promising young wide receivers coach — and one with deep recruiting ties to the state of Alabama — Auburn’s wide receivers have not lived up to the standard expected by Harsin this season.

The receivers room had to replace its top-three players this offseason following the departures of Seth Williams, Anthony Schwartz and Eli Stove. There was minimal returning production, with no returning wideout with more than 10 career catches entering the season, but the cupboard wasn’t bare, with five former four-star recruits at the position, plus the offseason addition of Georgia grad transfer and former five-star prospect Demetris Robertson.

Through four games, though, the Tigers’ wide receivers have been inconsistent, at best. The group has struggled to create explosive plays in the passing game, has been plagued by drops, and receivers have had a hard time getting on the same page as Auburn’s quarterbacks.

Williams was ultimately held responsible for that, and now Harsin is hopeful the 48-year-old Kiesau will be able to get Auburn’s wide receivers up to par and consistently producing at the level the Tigers’ head coach expects of them for the offense to be successful heading into SEC play. Kiesau had his first opportunity to get hands-on leading the group on Sunday during Auburn’s clean-up practice, and he’ll pick back up Tuesday when the team begins full-on preparation for Saturday’s SEC opener at LSU.

“Every player on this team, that’s a standard we all have got to live up to,” Harsin said. “Every single week we’ve got to be better. It doesn’t get easier. That’s one of the beauties of football. As the season goes on it doesn’t get easier, you should get better. That’s how it should be. There’s not less time spent getting yourself better. You’ve got sacrifice a lot and you’ve got to spend a tremendous amount of time in order to have yourself physically ready to play, mentally ready to play every single day. I think Coach Kiesau brings that to the table. He understands that.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[WFE12 9,192]

Do we still not know why Demetris didn't play?

[aubiefifty 17,479]

Just now, WFE12 said:

Do we still not know why Demetris didn't play?

just the same ol he is not ready yet. he killed the scrubs and non starters but struggled against the starters if i remember correctly. i cannot wait to watch him play down the road.

[WFE12 9,192]

 

[AlaskanFAN 1,666]

Anyone get a sense that CBH is sliding his old OC onto the sideline as the WR'S coach so that is there needs to be another Offense blood letting he can move CEK into the OC's spot after firing CMB?

[alexava 6,974]

9 hours ago, AlaskanFAN said:

Anyone get a sense that CBH is sliding his old OC onto the sideline as the WR'S coach so that is there needs to be another Offense blood letting he can move CEK into the OC's spot after firing CMB?

I think he’s probably going to be in a co-oc type role immediately. Maybe more than that. Not really waiting on a blood letting. 

[Zeek 16,660]

 

Pretty damn solid resume and not just a "Boise Boy"

[W.E.D 11,070]

14 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

just the same ol he is not ready yet. he killed the scrubs and non starters but struggled against the starters if i remember correctly. i cannot wait to watch him play down the road.

He's talking about Demetris Robertson.  Not Dematrius Davis

[McLoofus 35,182]

10 hours ago, AlaskanFAN said:

Anyone get a sense that CBH is sliding his old OC onto the sideline as the WR'S coach so that is there needs to be another Offense blood letting he can move CEK into the OC's spot after firing CMB?

I think this makes sense and is a likely scenario.

In a way, this coming offseason might be even more important than the last one. 

[dilligas 581]

The more I learn about this the more I’m convinced Corns firing had little if anything to do with Corns performance.  Instead looking back I think Harsin wanted to hire Kiesau as his WR Coach back in January but Kiesau wanted to wait to see if he’d be retained at Boise St.  Harsin waited awhile but eventually went ahead and hired Corn before any answer on Kiesaus future at Boise.  Then when Avalos chose not to retain Kiesau Harsin hires him as an Analyst aka WR Coach in waiting.  Planning to have him mentor Corn and then seeing the WR room needs more intense coaching Harsin decides he can’t wait until the end of the season to release Corn and promote Kiesau so does it now despite no issues with Corns performance art all.  In fact only positive feedback.  If that’s how it went down it’s a pretty chicken shite move by Harsin but we’ll probably never know for sure.

[TJRanger175 209]

21 minutes ago, dilligas said:

The more I learn about this the more I’m convinced Corns firing had little if anything to do with Corns performance.  Instead looking back I think Harsin wanted to hire Kiesau as his WR Coach back in January but Kiesau wanted to wait to see if he’d be retained at Boise St.  Harsin waited awhile but eventually went ahead and hired Corn before any answer on Kiesaus future at Boise.  Then when Avalos chose not to retain Kiesau Harsin hires him as an Analyst aka WR Coach in waiting.  Planning to have him mentor Corn and then seeing the WR room needs more intense coaching Harsin decides he can’t wait until the end of the season to release Corn and promote Kiesau so does it now despite no issues with Corns performance art all.  In fact only positive feedback.  If that’s how it went down it’s a pretty chicken shite move by Harsin but we’ll probably never know for sure.

From my understanding, it was a move that needed to be made and could be done right now due to Kiesau being on staff. 

C-Will, while a good coach and a great recruiter, came from a rather simple offensive system that used speed and simplicity to throw off defenses. It is entirely possible that while he is a promising young coach, he was out of his depth. That does not make him a bad person or a bad coach, just a bad fit.

Bottom line- everything about the offense is struggling right now, but the WR's have been really abysmal.

Kiesau is not only an outstanding WR coach, but a great OC as well.

That means another set of eyes in addition to Bobo and Harsin, but this time he has more of a seat at the table.

I also expect we will have the better players on the field more and way more accountability in the WR room.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, TJRanger175 said:

From my understanding, it was a move that needed to be made and could be done right now due to Kiesau being on staff. 

C-Will, while a good coach and a great recruiter, came from a rather simple offensive system that used speed and simplicity to throw off defenses. It is entirely possible that while he is a promising young coach, he was out of his depth. That does not make him a bad person or a bad coach, just a bad fit.

This should be the canned text for all future discussion on it, lol.

[AubieinNC2009 79]

11 hours ago, AlaskanFAN said:

Anyone get a sense that CBH is sliding his old OC onto the sideline as the WR'S coach so that is there needs to be another Offense blood letting he can move CEK into the OC's spot after firing CMB?

Not sure on that one, I think CEK would have been the WR coach if he followed Harsin to start with.  He stayed at BSU trying for the HC job.

[cole256 17,084]

I feel like the improvement from the wr is going to come with experience and better QB play and people will say it's because we changed coaches

I also hope we are NEVER in this situation again but if we were I'm absolutely positive that if people jump on a inexperienced wr group everybody pro coach would say they are young give them some time

[TJRanger175 209]

25 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

This should be the canned text for all future discussion on it, lol.

Quite possibly. It seems like it is coming up way too often.

[Barnacle 9,064]

18 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I feel like the improvement from the wr is going to come with experience and better QB play and people will say it's because we changed coaches

I don't think it's an either/or

I expect improvement to come from coaching, experience, and fingers crossed, better QB play. 

[JKClark 180]

21 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I feel like the improvement from the wr is going to come with experience and better QB play and people will say it's because we changed coaches

I also hope we are NEVER in this situation again but if we were I'm absolutely positive that if people jump on a inexperienced wr group everybody pro coach would say they are young give them some time

And the improvement might be because we changed coaches, but that's something we'll really never know for sure.  

If Harsin can't tell the difference between an inexperienced WR group making mistakes, and a coach that's not preparing them adequately, then he won't be around long anyway. 

[Zeek 16,660]

1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

I think this makes sense and is a likely scenario.

In a way, this coming offseason might be even more important than the last one. 

I'd rather see some of the Boise offenses I saw on tape than the hybrid offense we've seen so far. When Harsin was hired and Bobo was announced my concern, looking at their past, was that they didn't seem to have any affinity towards using mobile quarterbacks. That's not inherently bad but I don't think either feels like adjusting their offense to the quarterback's strengths and that's why so many of the UGA QBs fit a similar mold.

Holden Geriner is perfect for their system and a more accurate TJ will be as well. It's apparent through the first four games that we need someone who can consistently place a deep ball and deliver timing passes on time with some zip.

[woodford 3,688]

29 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I feel like the improvement from the wr is going to come with experience and better QB play and people will say it's because we changed coaches

I also hope we are NEVER in this situation again but if we were I'm absolutely positive that if people jump on a inexperienced wr group everybody pro coach would say they are young give them some time

It’s possible it could both. We will have to wait and see. WR play could improve drastically (routes, catching, actually being on the field, and the OL play poor and QB’s crash and burn. 
 

Next few weeks will tell us a lot. Could be good or bad news lol

[auburnphan 6,050]

28 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I feel like the improvement from the wr is going to come with experience and better QB play and people will say it's because we changed coaches

I also hope we are NEVER in this situation again but if we were I'm absolutely positive that if people jump on a inexperienced wr group everybody pro coach would say they are young give them some time

To be fair, these two things can hardly be mutually exclusive.  better WR play will result in better QB play and better QB play should result in better WR play.  Now there can be the rare occurances.

[Beaker 2,457]

1 hour ago, dilligas said:

  Then when Avalos chose not to retain Kiesau Harsin hires him as an Analyst aka WR Coach in waiting.  Planning to have him mentor Corn and then seeing the WR room needs more intense coaching Harsin decides he can’t wait until the end of the season to release Corn and promote Kiesau so does it now despite no issues with Corns performance art all.  In fact only positive feedback.  If that’s how it went down it’s a pretty chicken shite move by Harsin but we’ll probably never know for sure.

uummmm, no.

Harsin is not the idiot that some on the board make him out to be:   He would not risk losing his whole coaching staff!   If he fired a team member from the coaching staff who was doing great ("positive feedback"), he would not have the support from others and would lose his staff.   Look at the retention he had at Boise.  Harsin is a strong leader, not chicken sHiiite.

Also - Harsin is not an imbecile and gave Corn positive feedback when he can't get 2-3 WRs on the field when the game is on the line!  Coach Corn has had 9 months to read and comprehend the playbook.  9 months....what 7-8 receivers?  We had a transfer QB ON THE FIELD, in the moment, calling to Coach Corn to send on another WR.  TJ has had the playbook what 45 days?  Let that sink in....  a 19 yr old kid who got here 1 August, in the moment with the game on the line,  knew more than the WR coach did!

 

Lastly, Harsin built some redundancy into this staff by hiring the Keisaw guy who could do a lot of things. This cat was the #1 analyst for Kiffen at bama and Sark's OC at Washinton.    Keesaw is much more experienced that Corn.   

 I think Harsin probably did the right thing by hiring a local coach and giving him a chance, because of his recruiting connections.  Nobody expected the WR room and coach to be such a debacle.  Inexperienced?  100%, but these are issues that we had in the Spring.  

The season can be salvaged at this point.  Harsin  made a gutsy call, and could by stockpiling talented coaches.   Will it turn out?   We don't know yet. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Beaker

[Barnacle 9,064]

Just now, auburnphan said:

To be fair, these two things can hardly be mutually exclusive.  better WR play will result in better QB play and better QB play should result in better WR play.  Now there can be the rare occurances.

A very symbiotic relationship. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

6 minutes ago, Zeek said:

I'd rather see some of the Boise offenses I saw on tape than the hybrid offense we've seen so far. When Harsin was hired and Bobo was announced my concern, looking at their past, was that they didn't seem to have any affinity towards using mobile quarterbacks. That's not inherently bad but I don't think either feels like adjusting their offense to the quarterback's strengths and that's why so many of the UGA QBs fit a similar mold.

Holden Geriner is perfect for their system and a more accurate TJ will be as well. It's apparent through the first four games that we need someone who can consistently place a deep ball and deliver timing passes on time with some zip.

They do seem awfully reluctant to let Bo do the only thing he's particularly good at. I'm willing to give Bobo some time but it's certainly not ideal so far.

I've generally be averse to the idea of Harsin trying to recreate Boise down here, but at this point I see the value in him getting something that works set up with his guys and then adding and subtracting individual pieces from that established system, culture, whatever.

Geriner does seem to fit the prototype. I'm anxious for him to get here. Still optimistic for Dee Davis, too. 

[cole256 17,084]

I feel that. I just think the let them grow thing for whatever reason was dumped with this position group while at the exact same time saying let coach do his thing it's only 4 games. It's irony in that. But when you haven't played and you don't have somebody next to you to show you because they haven't played either it's going to be a process.

Improvement as far as knowing where you are, timing, even just expectations will grow with experience. Let'snot forget this is a new offense where they are all learning the entire route tree as well. As far as the new offense there's not a position that had a larger change than this group. Remember these guys were just placed in boxes...you are just the deep guy and etc. 

It's just alot that literally nobody or at least nobody on this board has seemed to think about as far as this group. Bunch of variables. But yes I'm really looking forward to how the team progress and how people choose to critique

[cole256 17,084]

6 minutes ago, auburnphan said:

To be fair, these two things can hardly be mutually exclusive.  better WR play will result in better QB play and better QB play should result in better WR play.  Now there can be the rare occurances.

Lol very much so. It's funny how it's only mentioned on one way though. I mentioned as far as critiqued and that's ignored for two days, I say it as far as improvement and in ten minutes it's acknowledged