FanNation - The Republic of Sport

auburn is gonna pay for this one for the next four years...

Auburn is the nationa's laughing stock. Crackerville U.

Ugh. This hire has less imagination than Auburn's offense.

T-town just errupted in laughter. I would have thought it impossible for Auburn to screw up worse than BAMA - but as not to be outdone....

ouch. As a Bama fan I should laugh, but this just hurt our strength of schedule

TCU was neither awful nor mediocre when Gary Patterson took over as coach. The Horned Frogs finished the season ranked #14 in the BCS in Dennis Franchione's last season there.

Costly mistake by Auburn to bully Tubs out of town they shot themselves in the foot cuz they expected to woo Muschamp away from Texas and when that didn't happen they freaked and went with Chizik.

Part 1:

I think Chizik could be a good coach at Auburn, but I see several problems, problems on the horizon that are not entirely related to Chizik, but directly effect his situation.

1. THE EXPECTATIONS AT AUBURN ARE TOO HIGH. Whoever it is, fans, big boosters, administration, or all of the above combined to run off/de-facto fire the coach who has had the most success in recent times at Auburn, and honestly it's hard to imagine any coach having a better run than Tuberville at Auburn in the forseeable future given the makeup of the SEC. Tuberville went undefeated one year, and if it wasn't for bad breaks would have won a national title with that type of team in a typical season. If Tuberville wins that title everyone thinks he is god and his is untouchable.

Football is different than it used to be, there are more teams competing for recruits, new powers that be in Florida, Alabama will not be going on probation for years at a stretch again anytime soon. Football is not the same as in 1985 and there is no Pat Dye coming to instantly deliver multiple titles to Auburn Alabama in today's game.

If you objectively look at the Auburn job in the SEC it is no higher than the 5th best job in the league, and more probably is 6th. Florida, Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and probably but not clearly Tennessee are better jobs than Auburn. I'm not saying this to be cruel, or to start a riot on this site, but if you look at a combination of tradition, school location, the campus itself, sex appeal of the school, recruiting competition, etc I think it is hard to argue this point if you are intellectually honest.

Therefore, if the expectations at Auburn are so high that they run off coaches that have the kind of success Tuberville has had, this speaks to big problems with the program and foreshadows heartache in the future, because the fact is, it is unlikely any coach will have that kind of success at Auburn again soon given the pecking order of the SEC. Is it possible to have a great season, sure, but a sustained run like that anytime soon is not likely.

Auburn would be better served to unite behind a coach, pour in everything they have to support the program, and accept that with the great seasons also come the not-so-great seasons because of the nature of life in the SEC and the fact that Auburn Alabama is not Florida. If fans do that the program can be successful. Will the program have a Nebraska-like 30 year run and win 5 titles? No. But Nebraska isn't doing that these days either. If you bicker and oust multiple coaches because you aren't winning the SEC every year you risk sinking even deeper into an Arkansas-like morass. And trust me, obtaining realistic success is a lot better than that.

(Cont.)

2. THE PRIMARY PROBLEM WITH THE 2008 TEAM WAS THE OFFENSE NOT THE DEFENSE. Although Gene Chizik may be a fine coach, hiring a defensive minded coach when the defense is already the team's strong point does not seem to be inspired choice to produce a quick turnaround.

There are other coaches out there who would more logical hires such as Texas Tech's Mike Leach who is an almost universally acknowledged offensive guru, and torched SEC defenses when he was offensive coordinator at Kentucky before that. He can recruit, look what he's managed to get at Tech. Yes, his personality is a little different, yes he's a Mormon and you're in Alabama, but he would have had a great chance to win you a lot of football games considering he's managed to do that at Texas Tech of all places. Kansas' Mark Mangino, or Missouri's Gary Pinkel also would have been logical candidates to strongly consider.

In the end, I wish you all luck. I hope Gene Chizik works out well and is a good fit for your program. I'd suggest coming together and supporting him, and getting real with your expectations so that you can be as successful as possible.

Part 3:

In my mind, it is unlikely that ANY coach that Auburn can hire will be able to duplicate Tuberville's record over his tenure for the next 10 years. The nature of the SEC west is very very different than it was during much of Tuberville's tenure.

During Tuberville's tenure:
*LSU went from being a down program barely registering on the national consciousness to winning a national championship and playing for another.
*Alabama end it's 47 year probation (or however many it was) and lucked into a great hire in Saban marking the resurgence of a national power that may not be entirely unlike what happened at Oklahoma under Stoops.


So...

For much of Tuberville's tenure the west was set up for Auburn to take, which to his credit, he did.

Given these power shifts that happened in the last few years (and the fact that Auburn was very unlucky that their undefeated season didn't yield a national championship so they didn't get the huge recruiting bump and media bump that comes with that) it is unlikely that the success that Auburn achieved over the last few years will be duplicated going forward no who is hired, unless Auburn could somehow win a national title and propel the program into the national spotlight.

It is in fact much MORE likely that Auburn could somehow win a national title in the next few years than it is that the overall record of success year after year that Tuberville had will be repeated over the next 10 years. This is due to the fact that it possible for Auburn to outperform LSU and Alabama win the conference and play for the title in a given year, however it is very unlikely that Auburn will dominate these programs on a regular basis.

On paper did Tuberville get screwed? You bet he did! Tuberville achieved more than you would expect and had a great run. HOWEVER, is it important to ask if he could have replicated that success over the next 10 years if he would have kept his job? It's very doubtful. It's doubtful that anyone could duplicate that run (at least purely record wise) at Auburn given the reemergence of LSU and Alabama as national players. In my opinion, winning a national title would be required to change the recruiting wars to put that type of record together again.

The real question to ask is WHO is the best to lead the program forward to have the best chance to overachieve, and seize the moment to steal a national title or SEC championship at the right moment? To me it was Mike Leach. Others to be considered would have been Mark Mangino or Gary Pinkel. Auburn already has a great defense, they need offensive inspiration. Auburn went with Gene Chizik. Will Chizik duplicate Tuberville's record over the next few years? It's doubtful, but I suspect very few could do that now. The question is can he strike while the iron is hot in a great year and win a national title and change the dynamic of the SEC West. And that's a question we don't know the answer to yet.

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you Auburn. When the back-up quarterback walks off the team mid-week before a Conference game (knowing that the starting quarterback is hurting and may not be able to play an entire game), you - as the head coach - no longer have any control or respect of your players. When you can figure out how to ensure a zero-win conference season playing no strong teams - I say good-bye and good ridance. Iowa State's football can only get better next season - it certainly can't end up any worse.

Omagus,
You're exactly right. Sorry for the generalization. That sentence has been tweaked. Also, all of you may want to re-read the paragraph about Jacobs' return at the airport. We've added a link to the YouTube clip of the arrival.

You already knew what Jacobs said, but the interesting part is the heckler. Lots of fans get mad, but they usually don't have the guts to confront the AD. This hire seems to have brought out an entirely new level of rage.

I've been trying to figure out where this ranks in the pantheon of shocking coach hires. It seems well ahead of Ron Zook to Florida in 2002, which had been the most shocking of the decade. If anyone thinks they have an apt comparison, feel free to post it -- even if it's not college football. I've been wracking my brain, and I'm having a hard time coming up with comparable hires. I know Gene Stallings didn't have the greatest career record when Alabama hired him, but did his hiring inspire this kind of anger/frustration?

Dang, MadTownMatt, pretty good observations on AU for a Virginian. Auburn IS the sixth best job in the SEC, but it is in the top 15 all time in wins and winning % nationally, so AU fans do expect to continually be in the mix, at least challenging for the SEC west crown every year. Right now expectations are too high and Chizik will be following a somewhat legendary coach, which will make it nearly impossible to please anybody. You are also correct that AU needed to hire an offensive guru as head coach for recruiting purposes, because their talent on that side of the ball is dreadful. I do think Tubby needed to go, recruiting had fallen off and the team had really been struggling since 2006 despite the record. But I, like you, thought they would get Leach or Johnson, or someone that would create a positive buzz. I don't think Chizik has a chance to succeed.

I am a longhorn and have mixed feelings about Chizik. He was our DC when we won the 2005 NC. But he next year we lost three games...and got beat by a bad aggie team. I think he was busy signing his Iowa State contract instead of prepping.

He might be a great coach at Auburn. Hard to tell. But I'm glad we kept Muschamp...he seems more sincere and real. Chizik seems to have an agenda. And he bolted on ISU with only 5 wins in 2 years. Yikes.

Leach might have been a better choice since he is winning games. But then again, Leach is such a gimmicky offense. Tech will never will a national championship because they can't get enough 5- and 4-star players who rather go to Texas, OU, LSU, Nebraska, USC, Florida and Michigan...all of whom recruit texas hard.

For All the nay sayers, let me remind you. Coach Tuberville, was a DC for Miami when the won the NC. Then his first duty as head coach started off terrible at Ole Miss. But he came to Auburn and built a great program. Defenses wins championships. Have faith and back our new coach. I think he was the right choice just like Tuberville. Remember to they thought Coach TT was a bad choice.

belive me Chizic is out of the same mold as Coach TT.

I will support Coach Chizik and I will give him a chance. If he can hire the right Offensive coordinator then we have a chance. However, I will not support Jay Jacobs the AD or President Gogue or the Board of Trustees. I personally feel every single one of them should be fired. I am tired of my school to be a source of bad publicity by these idiots. Lowder as far as I am concerned you can keep your money and you can keep your mouth shut. You have caused more trouble for our University than you are worth. If you love Auburn then you would step down. I loved Coach Tuberville and would have given him some time to turn the program around. Coach Chizik may end up being a good hire but he is going to have to prove himself over the coming months and it starts now with his hiring of his assistant coaches. Don't just hire someone that has a tie to Auburn. That's is how Alabama got into trouble, always wanting to hire someone with ties to the bear.

goforgone...you have a bad memory. TT didn't start off bad at Ole Miss. OM was on probation, and TT had 'em in a bowl game before he left. What bowl Is Iowa State going to.

Is it just me or is this an incredibly good thing for ISU? Honestly, Chizik had the look of a coach that ISU was still giving a chance to but I would have been surprised if he was around after the next season or so. Now ISU has the chance to go out and get someone new (Turner Gill anyone?).

And as for Auburn...wow...I couldn't agree more that I have know idea what they are thinking. MSU and Auburn are now going to be fighting it out for worst team in the SEC West...

Chizik may not be a bad choice. He probably realized that few top recruits would go to Iowa St or even the Big 12 North. Auburn has the talent for a great defense and Chizik should capitalize on this. But like Tuberville he is faced with re-establishing the Auburn offense. I think he will succeed, but Auburn may not be able to compete year after year with Alabama and LSU. Leach may be good on offense, but he would have been crippled in the SEC where coaches must know how to play defense.